Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

Does the UX32VD have a TPM module or not? I was fully expecting one but trying to install the driver for it from the UX32VD page seems to indicate I don't have it?? I would love to use Bitlocker for obvious reasons.

 

Omg, I have exactly the same problem! Returned it for the fan issue (actually 3500 RPM is normal, but mine had 5400 RPM, really loud), got it back, not solved (but solved it by my own)), and then also the backlit keyboard didn't work, so now it's back for reparation, altho the status now says: "Waiting-[WB1] Wait for Material/Spare Parts" ...

Probably when I get it back now there will be another issue due to the incompetence of the repairers... And each repair takes almost a month? pfff...

 

Just installed my Samsung 830, but the Mushkin RAM isn't showing up. I read someone else running the Mushkin ram on here. Is it because it is at 1.35V? Can someone else confirm that it works, or should I return it?

 

Does anyone get really disappointing battery life with their UX32VDs? I ran Battery Eater's Reader's Test, low brightness, wifi and bluetooth off, and the power saving mode on. And I only got 4 hours and 30 minutes out of it. Notebookcheck's review says they get about 7 hours off of theirs. This is with a fresh install of windows. Can anyone else share their results? I hope I didn't get a lemon.

 

UX32VD - Clean install on Crucial SSD with 40Hz refresh rate, lowest brightness, wifi/bluetooth turned off, idle at power saving mode = 5h 30min on battery life. That 7h battery life is just pure joke, probably they got paid for advertising rubbish data...at 60Hz refresh rate, wifi turned on, browsing web, brightness at 40% on power saving mode I am getting 3h 30min...

 

Never mind guys, the ram wasn't pushed in all the way. -_-

 

Is there a point to instant on if you have an ssd, or you're using the ssd cache to put windows on it? As far as I can tell there's no difference when I have instant on installed and not installed. And the battery saving feature of it does jack all, I lost 4% over 7-8 hours while it was on sleep, but instant on claims it can go on standby for 236 days?

 

Same problem here, bios 212 caused touchpad to be jumpy and very screwed up. Using external mouse is fine. Trying to find a way to downgrade BIOS but looks like there may have been a firmware update integrated into the BIOS. Will post results.

 

Can anyone please tell me whether a battery on UX31a is replaceable?

 

Hi everyone,
I live in the UK and unfortunately I can't find the UX32VD model available from a UK shop.
I have decided to purchase the laptop from Amazon.de, knowing that it will have a German QWERTZ keyboard layout.

Q1. Does anyone know if the keys of the laptop are removable, and thus possible to switch Z with Y ? Also, I can't seem to find any shop that sells replacement keys for this particular model (yet), any suggestions?

Q2. I would like to ask if anyone knows whether Asus UK can cover faults, while the laptop is purchased from Germany.

I am asking about the warranty cover in UK due to some frequently observed issues with UX32VD:
- Dead (black) or stuck bright pixels on the screen
- Heavy backlight bleeding around screen edges with black background ( VIDEO HERE)
- Unstable laptop basis ( VIDEO HERE)
- Excessive flex in keyboard ( VIDEO HERE)
- Fan is too noisy and randomly starts-stop even without processing load ( INFO HERE)

Thanks and I apologize if the answers are already in older posts that I couldn't find.

 

OK, for those of us with the UX31A -- STAY AWAY FROM BIOS UPDATE 212!

I upgraded earlier today and after the restart, my touchpad is essentially useless. Whenever I go to use it, the cursor jumps all over the place and randomly selects while moving. An external mouse still works fine.

So, in an effort to fix it, I re-installed the Smart Gesture software/drivers. No luck. Tried the Elantech drivers, no luck.

I eventually flashed back to BIOS version 206 using winflash (start with the /nodate command switch) and re-installed the Elantech drivers.... a few restarts later my touchpad appears to be functioning SLIGHTLY better again but only intermittently. Works completely fine for a few minutes, then all of a sudden jumps and jitters all over the place making my touchpad completely unusable.

Bottom line is stay away from 212 for now.... whatever it does to the touchpad firmware (I'm assuming), it won't go back with a re-flash to 206.

Sent in a support ticked to ASUS, will let you know if anything else develops.

 

And went back up to 212 using EasyFlash and a few reboots later (again), seems to be normal! Ugh... what an afternoon wasted! Maybe others will have better luck.

 

Went just fine on my UX31A-DB51 with Elan 10.5.9.0 of 20 Feb 2012. Always good to make a couple of reboots after you install smth new...

 

so, please anyone can tell me whether UX31a has a replaceable battery??????

 

It does not have a user replaceable battery.

 

Hey guys,

I noticed that when my UX31A is plugged in I get better gaming performance than when I'm unplugged and on high performance setting. is there any way I can have it on full performance when unplugged?

on a seperate note, got my first BSOD when resuming from sleep. D:

 

@dimos

For what it's worth Passiontec said that the ux32vd they sold via this link had a qwerty keyboard. I'm not sure i really believe it so I haven't ordered from them yet. I did check another store in Germany and looked at the keyboard they had and it was definately qwerz.

ASUS ZENBOOK Prime UX32VD R4002V at Passiontec kaufen

I think you would have to completely dismantle the laptop to remove the keyboard and switch the keys.

If you do manage to do it let me know as I wondered the same.

I'm going to try calling one of the stores in Munich to see if they can get a qwerty version in for me. I'll be over there agin next week.

The warranty should be the usual international one but it could be an issue to get it replaced. Some German outlets offer a guarantee on pixels for eu20 extra.

Cheers

Derek

 

I tried uninstalling power 4 Gear hybrid and that didn't help.

I checked advanced power settings and made sure everything was set to maximum performance for CPU and GPU (HD4000) and performance is still lacking compared to being plugged in. I'm at a loss

 

Does speedfan support the fan controller? Has anyone run Linux and does it support fan control through lm sensors?

How noisy is it?

 

any1 who bought the ux32vd recently from amazon can tell me if there are still bleeds/fan issues/faulty QC from them? i wanna order from there soon and wonder if the new batch is better checked before sold, thanks

 

The HD4000 is actually decent for games. However I noticed that whenever I'm not plugged in the performance decreases in an annoying manner. I get more annoying fps drop spikes.

I've adjusted the Power settings to high performance and made sure min and max cpu on battery is 100% and that the Intel Graphics setting is at maximum performance for the setting.

However it doesn't seem to matter. I get smooth frame rates with the plug in but on battery with high performance things get choppy. Does anyone know if I can force the plug-in performance on battery?

 

and one more question, will the intel 520 ssd series fit in the ux32vd, and is it any good for it?

 

Yes, as far as I have understood it all 7mm 2.5" SSD drives should fit. The Intel 520 SSD exists in both a 9.5mm and 7mm version. I would also be interested in recommendations on the 520 drive.

/Jocke

 

Try depressing <Fn>+<Space bar> until it gets you to the high performance mode

 

I already set it to high performance

 

I have just bought the ux32vd, but there is a problem with the fan that I understand others have experienced as well:
The fans go from completely off to maximum (or very noisy) and then back to full stop, this cycle repeats itself. I have no idea how to fix it!

 

Just read this

"Laptop is unable to provide full power to GPU when on the battery. Known issue, nothing to do with windows power profiles or anything, and all users i've seen with this, have all been through what i have seen."

So far no solutions or reasons. Very odd

 

On Amazon.com's UX31A page there is a yellow note that states:

Item Under Review

While this item is available from other marketplace sellers on this page, it is not currently offered by Amazon.com because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here. (Thanks for the tip!)

We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Amazon.com: ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 13.3-Inch Ultrabook: Computers & Accessories

 

Does the UX32VD support 2560x1440 on a Dell U2711 with HDMI? Anyone tested?

 

Probably too many people returning over backlight bleeding would be my guess.

Been doing more and more research on the performance on battery issue and It seems odd that nobody has found a solution.

Does anyone know if it's really a hardware limitation? I find it hard to believe the HD4000 graphics would suck that much power just to run

 

Dear DJP12,
I haven't yet got the laptop, it seems that it is still in transport via CityLink.
Once I receive it, will let you know if it is possible to swap the "Z" and "Y" keys of the QWERTZ keyboard. In addition I plan to buy keyboard stickers, carefully cut the symbols of interest and place them on the right side (have some empty space there) of some of the keys:
LAPTOP UK STICKERS

Also for your information, a few days ago I contacted PASSIONTEC asking about the keyboard layout and they confirmed that it is German.

Cheers

 

just wondering, will asus release a version like the ux32vd, without the discrete graphic card? i realy like the laptop, but i have no use for a graphic card...

 

Hi,
Does anyone has issue with the UX31A lcd (full hd ips) other than backlight bleeding ?
In my case, after 2 months, a line of white pixels appeared in the center of the screen !
Hébergement instantané d'images - imagik.fr

 

Yes, it's just called "any Zenbook Prime that isn't a UX32VD"

 

Going to receive the UX21A in a couple of days--it's got Japanese Windows 7 Home on it (probably because it's because the person I bought it from got it in Japan--who knew!?!).

Anyone point me to a guide for installing Windows 7 Ultimate (SP1)? I really am just curious whether I can install all the drivers after or should I try to load everything onto the USB key I have the Windows 7 install files on. My other thought is to only put the Intel chipset and USB 3.0 drivers from the ASUS site on the USB key during install and then install everything else after that.

I tried reading through all 400 pages of this thread, but my brain gave up after about the first 50. Doing a search through the thread didn't help much either.

Would this work (modifying for the lack of DVD on the UX21A, of course)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...ow-install-windows-7-integrated-32gb-ssd.html

 

Today I received the Zenbook Prime UX32VD-R4002V from Amazon.de
It has German keyboard layout and German Windows.

Since the keyboard is QWERTZ, I carefully removed the 'Z' and 'Y' letters and swapped them. You need to be really carefull when removing the keys, I prefer to do it from the sides, lifting a bit the key to create some space and then use a really thin but not sharp tool to unlock the plastic holders underneath. I assume, one may just lift the key hard enough to come off, but I was afraid of causing any sort of damage.

Regarding the windows installation, on first startup I chose "English" as my language and everything got installed in English, instead of German which was the default option.

Finally I closely inspected the screen for Bright Pixels because the Asus ZBP Policy covers the laptop only for the 1st month. I used UDPIXEL to locate bright pixels. I found that a specific pixel has these issues:
- Under Red color shows black --> probably dead red sub-pixel
- Under Blue color shows red --> probably stuck/faulty blue sub-pixel

The truth is that under white or black background the pixels looks perfect, and it is not noticeable unless you specifically test the screen with fullscreen pure blue or pure red.

Do you know if Asus would replace the laptop under the ZBP policy?
Still, it might not be a good idea to return a unit that has such a small glitch, knowing that there is a big number of UX32VD with bigger issues (fan noise, keyboard, dead whole pixels, keyboard flex, spongy touchpad, etc.)

What would you do ?

Thanks

 

yea, but the ux31a isnt upgradeable, and has a micro hdmi connection which sucks :\

 

Did Asus cancel its plans to release the ux21a with a FHD display in the US? The ux21a is only being sold at a few stores right now and only with the lower 1366x768 screen.

 

@dimos
I don't know how the asus warranty works but, personally, for such a small fault I wouldn't bother. As you note you could end up with one with fan issues etc.

Looks like it was pretty easy to change the keys. I was going to wait for the U500 but I may change my opinion.

Can you post a picture of the updated keyboard? Just curious how many other keys are odd

Cheers

Derek

 

I'm not sure about the US, but it's definitely NOT canceled in Europe. I saw one for sale a couple of days ago, with the FHD screen.

 

Hey guys, I'm doing a clean install on the UX32A and can anyone tell me how I can use the 24GB SSD as cache or something to speed it up? I installed all of the basic drivers such as wireless, chipset, etc.

Thanks!

 

Wow that's really messed up. no matter what I do the performance difference in the UX31A is night and day between plugged in and not plugged in. Power settings set to full performance on both and the same.

Borderlands 2 with playable frames plugged in. Unplugged it's rubbish dropping down to 10 FPS constantly. GAHHHHHHHHHHH

 

Hi again,
unfortunately today I realised that the laptop I received has the fan issue. It spins up and down, even when the temperature is as low as 45-46C. It is kind of annoying, especially if you work in a silent environment.

The problem is that many users complain that the fan irregularities might come and go randomly. For example yesterday, I didn't notice any problem with the fans. What are your experiences? Is this an intermittent issue?

A few moments ago I flashed the new BIOS (211) but it didn't fix the problem. If it persists, I might consider to RMA the laptop back to Amazon.de (I hope it won't be too complicated as I live in the UK).

Attached you can find a picture of my keyboard

 

i´ve got the fan problem as well. Many ppl have experienced this and non the wiser how to fix it. No word from ASUS (called them)
Here is a thread started about the problem:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/687758-asus-ux32a-fan-goes-off-off.html

 

Thanks for the info.
Before buying this notebook the fan issues was a big concern and unfortunately I was not lucky.

Yesterday night the fans went on-off in cycles whenever the temperature went above ~45C or so, and stayed on for 10-20 seconds. This resulted in an annoying start-stop cycle whenever I did even simple things like scroll down the browser.

Today after a cold boot (left powered off overnight) for about 30-40 minutes the fans were very silent, even when the core temps exceeded 50C. In my eyes, this is a bit weird because I would expect the notebook to have consistent thermal thresholds in order for the fans to start. Now, after a few hours of use I get the same on-off behaviour.

Another thought is that apart from the core temps, the fans could also be triggered by the temperature of another component, but again, most of the times they stay on for 3-5seconds which makes no sense; which manufacturer would do such a weird setup and have start/stop temperature thersholds which are so close each other ?

 

The 'solution' to the fan on/fan off problem is to uninstall the Intel dynamic platform thermal framework software (via Control Panel). I put 'solution' in quotes because, while the fan problem is solved, windows will now show 7 unknown devices in the hardware listing.

This worked for me with no apparent side-effects and I haven't heard of anyone for whom this has not fixed the problem. I remain hopeful that Asus will actually fix the problem though, either with a BIOS or driver update.

 

@dimos
Thanks for the photo. It looks like a 31A keyboard may fit and the spares aren't that expensive.

Good luck if you decide to RMA. I don't think you will have Ny issues as Amazon are pretty good at that sort of thing.

Derek

 

Has anybody with a UX32A tried to replace the actual lcd panel with either the older UX31E 1600x900 or the new UX31A/32VD 1920x1080 screens? Read somewhere else on these forums people trying to swap the panels on other models.

 

@jeffsmythe
Thanks for the insightful hint, but unfortunately I use Ubuntu. I hope that whenever Asus releases a solution to the fan problem they will do it via a BIOS update and not via drivers for windows.

@DJP12
Yes indeed, it seems that UX32VD, UX31A and UX32A have the same keyboard, but I don't know it for sure, it is just what it seems to me.
If you are aware of any online store which sells replacement keys and has in stock keys for UX32VD/UX31A/UX32A, then feel free to share it with us.

I might finally consider to RMA the notebook and hope for the best

 

I installed the following programs: