Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

From what I can tell, hardware in the UX21A is the same as the UX31A, for all intents and purposes. Assuming this to be the case, this guide I created may be helpful to you.

I will private message you a link as well just in case.

 

@dimos
Interestingly this appears to be a UK keyboard:

http://www.asusparts.eu/index.php?cPath=224828_235228_236549_239091

A tad expensive though so it may be cheaper to go for individual key tops.

Cheers

Derek

 

Looks like a new version of Smart Gesture (1.0.32) was released today. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

 

Thanks a million!
Will save that link in case I get too disappointed with the german
The truth is that it is by far easier to find the keys while typing comparing with when just looking at the keyboard (brain is indeed mysterious).

Another thing I wanted to share (here might not be the right place though..) is that being also an owner of a Vaio Z (VPC Z2) 1080p i7-2640m 8gb ram 128GB ssd, I had the chance to compare the machines side by side. Probably I am keeping Zenbook and sell the Z2.

Z2 has a very good screen but UX32VD's IPS is definitely better and what amazed me is that while they both are 1080p and have similar size (only .2 inch difference), the IPS panel was easier for the eyes after long hours use. However, I liked a bit better the colours of Z2.

My UX32VD is upgraded with Intel 520 SSD 180GB and Crucial 8GB 1600MHz (CL11 in order to run at 1600). I have also disabled RAID in the Vaio. Performance-wise, Z2 was a bit faster in loading the OS and loading programs like Gimp, Eclipse, Thunderbird etc. (not more than 10% faster, sometimes even less). Browser benchmarks follow:
- Sunspider: Z2 (162ms), UX32VD (175ms)
- Google Octane: Z2 (14355), UX32VD (13750)
- PeaceKeeper Futuremark: Z2 (4302), UX32VD (3920)

Cheers

 

You think a German keyboard is rough. I wasn't expecting the Japanese keyboard to be like this (on a 11.6-inch diagonal platform that UX21A):

View attachment 84784

Good link. I may have to figure out a way to see if I can swap my keyboard out.

 

Hey... what better way to learn to touch type)) Recently I got into typing Russian, and it didn't take long to learn (I've always touch typed in English). People are intrigued that I don't have any Russian letters on my keyboard. Those poor hunt-and-pecking souls.

 

Anyone tried the new smart gesture driver?

 

Not yet, have you tried it yet? How is it?

 

I haven't purchased a zenbook yet, in part because of all of the complaints about poor palm detection. Waiting for Asus to fix the issue.

 

New to the forum and enjoying the thread. Wanted to post that Asus has added an updated version for the Elan touchpad driver. You can find it here: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

Edit: I just updated to it and it screwed up my touchpad. It rendered it inoperable and I had to use my mouse to click on things and revert back to a prior version. I apologize for jumping the gun and posting without trying it first. Please use caution if downloading. I may have had a corrupted download and will try again.

Update: I downloaded a 2nd time and had the same result. I unzip and install and I'm able to click on the "run" screen and then it comes up again and I'm not able to click on anything else. The touchpad is disabled from that point. I'm back on a prior version now so all is well. The check sums matched for each download so maybe someone smarter than me can figure it out.

Not what I had in mind for saying hello

 

Did you try the Smart Gesture driver too?

 

Do you have a mouse plugged it?

There is a setting that disables the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in.

I installed the new driver and I like the scrolling action much better. I still have to use TouchFreeze to disable the touchpad while I'm typing but otherwise it is better than the beta driver I was using.

 

Did you install the Elantech or Smart Gesture driver?

 

I installed the Elantech driver. Sorry for not being clear about that.

 

Found this while googling, for those looking to pick up a ux21a

Buy ASUS ZENBOOK Prime UX21A-1AK3 - 11.6 inch notebook PC with Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor - Microsoft Store Online

It has a page on the microsoft store, but it doesn't show up in the item listings.
You can add it to the cart, but i haven't finished collecting pennies to fund mine, do i didn't test purchasing it.

and searching for ux21a doesn't return anything. searching for ux21a-1ak3 will show it, however. apparently there's a category called 'thin & light' notebooks, but i haven't been able to find a link to that category from the home page.

 

I installed the Smart Gesture.

You might want to give the Smart Gesture a try. I know both have the option for disabling the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in but I'm pretty sure that the Smart Gesture default is to have that option turned off.

 

You know, I saw that somewhere that the touchpad can be disabled when there's a mouse working but I haven't had that cause me a problem in the past. (I don't know where the setting is) I've always been able to use the 2 of them at the same time.

I was able to 1 finger point to things so the touchpad was technically working, although limited in it's use to pointing only, couldn't do anything else. After installing another driver it worked along with the mouse so I don't think it was that.

Thanks for that suggestion though as it kind of makes sense as to the cause. I've tried several touchpad drivers for my UX31A without that ever happening so I'm going to try again and hopefully get a better result.

 

Thanks. I'm using the 1.0.26 version for the Smart Gesture driver and it seems to be working fine. Scrolls a little smoother than I remember on past installs. Probably stay with this for awhile.

Now for a restart to get my fan to stop revving up to 5K.

 

Do not know if it has already been said but quite a lot of software updates are available on Asus support website:
- ATKPackage 1.0.0022
- Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework 6.0.5.1080
- etc

And for the persons interested, I have find out why, on my new UX31A, I had the fan issue after standby/resume and found a fix.

See my post on thread "ASUS UX32A Fan Goes On, Off, On, Off".

Cheers

 

Tried the new smart gesture and elan touchpad drivers. The elan one feels much better imo.

 

Any palm detection improvements?

 

I still don't understand why the Asus Smart Gesture drivers don't allow 2-finger CLICK, you can 2-finger tap for right click but that always pops up accidentally. I'd rather just enable 1 and 2 finger click, why can't Asus just add this simple feature?

 

Tried the new Elan. Didn't work on my UX32VD with Windows 8. No ELAN tab in Mouse properties. To revert, had to uninstall, reinstall old, then in Device Manager force it to use the old driver. Also, my WiFi stopped working until I disabled/enabled it in Network Connections.

 

Sorry for a lamer question - do Elan and Smart Gesture work in parallel (eg adding functionality to each other) or it's just one of them that can work/be installed at a time?

Due to the wrong placement of the touchpad (in the centre of the frame rather the space bar) and its large size, I have to manually disable the touchpad while typing, which is annoying. I did not find an option to automatically switch it off in the Elan driver - can someone help me locate where is the box? Is it true such option exists in the Smart Gesture one?

Many thanks.

 

1. Chiming in on the UX21A:

Looks like they're not selling the i7 nor IPHD display version. Then again, after about a week's time of use:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...us-ux21a-zenbook-ultrabook-owners-lounge.html

I've found that the HD resolution is really small on a 11.6" screen. Hooks up fine to an external display on HDMI well, and sound even works through the external display.

2. Elan drivers
Where did people find the latest Elan drivers I have 10.5.9.0.7 and can confirm that the control panel isn't there anymore. I will try rebooting and not turning on my BT mouse to see if it shows back up. In the meantime, anyone can point me to the latest drivers, I'd be grateful.

 

Try here for the drivers:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support-

I entered Touchpad in the search window on the Asus support page.

 

I'd like to get the newest Intel DPTF driver you mentioned but I don't see it on their site:
ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK UX31A

Do you have another link? Thanks!

 

As for the Touchpad driver explanation, follow same procedure:

Go to ASUS website and select "Asus Support Site".
Then search for "DPTF" and you will find latest driver version.

From a more general point of view, drivers are not always (sometimes never) up-to-date on the product page.
Better to search for individual driver separately (typing the hardware -touchpad, etc- or software -DPTF, ATK, etc- you're looking for in the support search box)

 

One at a time. Elan has its configuration options in Mouse properties, Smart Gesture puts a more limited set in the ASUS GUI (ATK).

The ELAN control panel, under advanced, has the ASUS Smart Detector configuration. If you think the name is unhelpful, wait till you read the Help file. Perhaps someone can explain the options? All the options I try seem to produce the same effect, but in theory you would adjust palm detection there.

Also, I think the best advice is to adjust your typing posture. It will help your wrist health as well as solve this problem. Wrists should be straight, and the hands come at the keyboard diagonally. I never have a problem with the touchpad.

 

But maybe those drivers don't show up on the product page because they don't work? Eg, the Elan driver.

 

Elan driver is a "special" case...

Generally, you should stay to product listed drivers and only search for latest version of them separately.

For instance, Intel DPTF on product page is v6.0.1.1067, where latest version available (on specific Asus DPTF support page) is v6.0.5.1080 = no issue to install latest one.

Same for ATK driver (1.0.0020 on product page, latest available 1.0.0022), USB charger+ utility (2.1.3 vs 2.1.4), Wireless console (3.0.31 vs 3.0.32), Webcam utility / lifeframe 3 (3.1.1 vs 3.1.3), Realtek audio driver (6.0.1.6668 vs 6.0.1.6690), Card Reader (6.1.7600.10010 vs 6.1.7601.39025), Intel MEI (V8.1.0.1252 vs 8.1.0.1281), Intel IRST (11.1.0.1006 vs 11.2.0.1006 ), ...

 

What a pain. Is it worthwhile to install the update manager from ASUS then? Would it even find them? I was told not to install it because it caused problems. Thanks for pointing it out though.

As for the Elan drivers, I haven't found it ever on the ASUS sites. Just want to be clear that I'm referring to the ones from Elantech, not the OEM version provided to ASUS (and modified thereby). Currently, I'm using this version: Elan Touchpad UX31A Win7_64_10.5.9.0 (sorry, link isn't handy, but it's in my UX21A thread and another thread where I originally found it, as well as on Softpedia.com). The device shows up as a separate tab in the mouse settings control panel and also in the task bar.

 

Has anyone received the i5/128GB configuration UX31A with an ADATA SSD recently?

I just received my machine, and was disappointed to see that it came with the Sandisk. Wondering whether to return it and try my luck or just keep it.

 

The Elantech version you spoke of, 10.5.9.0 seems to work best for me and I too had difficulty finding it listed when I typed "UX31A" in the search window. As was previously said, it took me typing in something specific like touchpad to get the complete list available.

I also read somewhere that the Live update utility doesn't work well so I uninstalled it. When I did try it, it didn't seem to do anything. Maybe someone knowledgeable on that utility could chime in.

I'm going to update all the drivers this weekend and probably just keep an eye out for any that I think aren't performing well and leave the rest alone. Seems like a lot to keep track of otherwise and I'm pretty sure I'll hear about any that come along from someone posting that really make a difference.

 

New here with a UX31A. Got it in NY. tried about 5 different i5+128, all of them was Sandisk so I decided to keep it... 2 weeks with it and it is great!
Sometime I feel tho, that it take more time to extract files, or copying files than it needs... is there any softwere to check if the speeds are ok? thx!

 

Off-topic rant, but why are the Taiwanese so bad at writing software? (Gigabyte is perhaps an even bigger offender.) Their absolute main emphasis is on tacky graphics. Names/labels/text is always confusing and unhelpful. And in the end, the software doesn't do what it should. Eg, the updater that doesn't update anything. And it's not that they don't try. They try very hard to release dozens of those ugly, confusing, broken utilities that pollute our machines. Some CEO somewhere must be very proud of that work.

This is the reason ASUS will never be Apple. (And all we ask of them is a few utilities... not an entire OS.)

 

Thank you for that list. I'll provide links for people (but don't blame me if they hose your machine

Intel DPTF
ATK Package
USB Charger+
Wireless Console
Card Reader
Intel MEI
Intel IRST
Couldn't find the Realtek driver

 

My small personal experience: Asus Live Update has never found any update...

Add these:
- Audio Realtek
- Webcam Utility / LifeFrame 3

You have now the complete list of what I've installed from Asus website without any issue

But you have other driver / utility which are currently up-to-date on the UX31A product page which should be checked from time to time as well (= list of URLs not exhaustive at all).


And of course, some of them could be updated from the "manufacturer" website (as Asus does not always supply latest version), like Intel for:
- IRST v11.6.0.1030
- WIDI v3.1.29.0
- Bluetooth v2.2
I have installed all of them

Welcome to the world of Windows and drivers

 

I try to let Windows Update install all my drivers, and try not to install any of the "awesome" utilities. So far, Windows 8 doesn't have a lot of them, but it handles the function keys without ATK (with 212 BIOS), wireless switch without the wireless console, etc. It still needs the ELAN driver, Intel DPTF, Intel MEI, Realtek card reader, and a few others. But hopefully these too it will soon be able to find on its own.

 

You can use CrystalDiskMark. I'd suggest you don't do it, though. You'll be a bit depressed at your disk performance . The Sandisk is really not very good at lots of small reads. Takes forever to extract large folders, etc.

It seems most reports of a UX31A DB51 with ADATA were back in July/August. Most recent September purchases seem to come with a Sandisk. Makes me wonder if only the initial batch shipped with ADATA while Sandisk were ramping up production or something, and now they're all Sandisks. Real shame.

 

I'm guessing you will never see one with the Adata SSD again..this is the same crap Asus always pulls and did with the original UX31 as well..throw a few out with Adata and then all the rest have Sandisk. Wait until the next model and then get it in the first few weeks and you will probably get what you want.

 

thx. what are the expected results, for the Sandisk and for the ADATA ones?

 

Has anybody tried the latest Elantech driver?

I'm using the Smart Gesture but I'd be willing to try the Elantech again if there's an improvement over the Smart Gesture.

 

I feel like I got bait-and-switched with the latest "Elantech" driver, because after it was installed, I had the ugly- Asus Smart Gesture shovelware again.

With terrible inertial scrolling and lack of two-finger right click, I went right back to the Elantech 10.5.10.0 driver, which is just about perfect, IMHO.

 

I feel exactly the same way; I'm sticking with 10.5.10.0. The latest Asus smart gesture is terrible, IMHO.

 

I think Elantech's 10.5.9.0 and 10.5.10.0 work very well and for me are an improvement when scrolling with the touchpad. I'm not flying past things like I do with Smart Gesture. I also like the additional options you get in the control panel and feel I have better control of the touchpad.

 

Hahahahaha:

Version V11.5.0.9

Description Elantech Touchpad driver
File Size
62,76 (MBytes) 2012.09.25 update
Download from
Global (DLM) Global P2P

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

Who's going to be the first?

 

It didn't work for me. I tried several downloads to verify md5 checksum and after restart, every time it locks up and I have to revert back to a previous driver.

 

So strange.

I use the Smart Gesture and double tap for right click all the time.

I do have Chromium smooth scrolling extension which I really like. I have no complaints with the SG.

I wasn't a fan of the Elantech that I installed right after I got my machine - it came with stock Windows driver. Not long after that I got a BIOS update and touchpad driver update via ASUS Update.

Then I saw that link to non-device specific drivers and have been using that for updates.

 

Any idea when the next model will be out? If the UX31 was released in October 2011 and the UX31A around middle of this year, then maybe they're due for a new model soon?

Honestly, I'm struggling to think of what improvements I'd like in this machine. A faster SSD and a DisplayPort? And 8GB RAM of course!