Zenbook U500 Announced: 15.6" HD IPS, GT650M, Quad-Core i7...

Has anyone confirmed whether the SSDs can be replaced with HDDs / whether the SSDs are non-standard (i.e. 5 or 7mm)?

 

Yes, many reviews as well as the pictures of the internals show that it uses the proprietary connection for a SSD that resembles an extended mSATA drive. There is no availability on these things for retail purchase.

 

Damn. Were it not for that, it'd be my perfect notebook. I suppose that's the price of thin/light.

 

Models in some markets have standard HDD inside which can be replaced with SSD

 

I'm still looking for this configuration, I wonder how they fitted that set-up. Have you seen any review about this?

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

THX for keeping us updated. I also work on firmwares in my company which include fan control. Actually I do have no Idea what they are doing right now!? It is more or less just one value to change in the code and then you start testing again monitoring the real teamperatures. If the results are not correct you change the fanspeed curve again and re-initiate the tests. This is a very normal and simple procedure. No idea why this takes one month....

 

Just wait until spare parts starts to be available and buy a "Asus special" to SATA connector as used for some models of this computer. That's what I'll do anyway.

 

The 24GB SSD cache + 500GB HDD configuration which was available in Slovenia was sold out in a couple of days and the importer does not know when he will be able to get some more. Sadly I was too late. I don`t get why is there such a problem with availability of this model. And no I haven`t found any review of u500 with HDD.

 

Wow. As I imagined, the hybrid configuration is very appealing
Can you remember what was the price for that configuration?

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Is there any evidence to suggest, e.g., from previous models, that such special conversion parts will ever become available?

 

Maybe they are rolling multiple fixes/ERs into a single release that includes the fan fix?

 

Just started U500 appear online stores in Ukraine. Communicated with the seller. Interesting things to tell

There are two configuration. Both free and both Touch 128SSD +500 Gb with 6GB of memory.
Differences!
U500VZ-CN038H (no DVD drive) $ 1700
U500VZ-CN014H (with DVD drive) 1765 $
The difference is $ 65

And in both trim levels present bag and mouse!!!

That's the Ukraine)

 

Awsome! I don't really need touch, but if it fits in the budget...

 

Non of them is Touch and unfortunately non is free.


U500VZ-CN012H - 3612, 500 HDD + 24 SSD - balkans
UX51VZ-CN021H - 3612, 500 HDD + 128 SSD - south korea
U500VZ-CN014H - 3612, 500 HDD + 128 SSD - ukraine
U500VZ-CN038H - 3612, 500 HDD + 128 SSD - ukraine

U500VZ-CN013H - 3612, 256 - finland
UX51VZ-CN023H - 3612, 256 - switzerland
UX51VZ-CN024P - 3612, 256 - italy
UX51VZ-CN025H - 3612, 256 - poland
U500VZ-CN032H - 3612, 256 - uk
UX51VZ-CN035H - 3612, 256 - germany
U500VZ-CN046H - 3612, 256 - north europe
U500VZ-DH71 ----- 3612, 256 - usa
UX51VZ-CN026P - 3612, 512 - italy
UX51VZ-CN036H - 3612, 512 - germany
U500VZ-CN050H - 3612, 512 - russia
U500VZ-CN050P - 3612, 512 - russia
U500VZ-XH71 ----- 3612, 512 - usa

UX51VZ-CM061P - 3612, 256, Touch - italy
UX51VZ-CM062P - 3612, 512, Touch - Italy

UX51VZ-CN065H - 3632, 500 HDD + 24 SSD - romania
UX51VZ-CN056H - 3632, 500 HDD + 128 SSD - japan
UX51VZ-CN066H - 3632, 500 HDD + 128 SSD - romania

UX51VZ-CM047H - 3632, 256 - romania
UX51VZ-CM054H - 3632, 256 - south korea
UX51VZ-CM043H - 3632, 512 - japan
UX51VZ-CM042P - 3632, 512 - czech rep.
UX51VZ-CM053P - 3632, 512 - romania
U500VZ-CM055P - 3632, 512 - portugal
U500VZ-CM064H - 3632, 512 - spain

UX51VZ-CM039P - 3632, 256, Touch - south africa
U500VZ-CM040H - 3632, 256, Touch - france
U500VZ-CM048H - 3632, 256, Touch - france
U500VZ-CM051H - 3632, 256, Touch - uk
U500VZ-CM057H - 3632, 256, Touch - france
UX51VZ-CM075H - 3632, 256, Touch - macedonia
U500VZ-CM083H - 3632, 256, Touch - north europe
U500VZ-CM044H - 3632, 512, Touch - france
U500VZ-CM055H - 3632, 512, Touch - hungary

 

Russia does not ?

 

1350 - 1450 EUR. It was a bargain and inn our market actually cheaper than Ux31 with I7

 

Now it's friday and we still dont have any new BIOS... bah!

 

Wow...can someone tell what differences a different motherboard imply? Will there be a different BIOS? Does the different MB affect functionality in any way?
Sorry for my ignorance

 

In Soviet Russia...
...there are at least some shops where this laptop is being advertised as being available for sale soon:
odinka.ru

 

I just received a new e-mail from Asus support which includes a new patch (204) for the UX51VZA version! Sadly I am currently located at a client and unable to apply it right now.

I will try to do so as soon as I get home tonight and keep everyone updated. Hopefully tonight we will have a fix for this issue!

Also, because of recent trouble, I too have become suspicious of the SD card reader. When I have time I will investigate, but for now, be careful with it.

 

Sounds great! Hope it works.

This doesn't sound great though :/ I have had no problem yet but haven't used it extensively and only with older cards (no SDXC). To be useful for storage expansion it have to be 100% reliable...

 

They have uploaded the new bios.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download U500VZ

Edit: Damn, didn't see it was for (UX51VZ).

 

Hello asus U500 users...

Few of my doubts regarding this notebook:

1) Has anyone of you used ubuntu on this notebook..
What is the support of the GeForce GT 620M GPU for ubuntu.. i have researched and found that if this notebook's bios doesnt support any option to use nvdia GPU by default.. there is no way that nvdia gpu can be used from ubuntu or for that matter any of the linux distros.. due to the optimus functionality by nvidia which is nothing but auto switchover of the intel/nvdia gpus to optimize performance.So are there any such options in the bios?
And does the sleep and hibernate features work fine on ubuntu?

2)What about the warranty?? is it 2 years international one?? as its not available in india.. i might be buying from the US for use in india.. so will i get warranty support here in india??

3)And does this have UEFI instead of BIOS?? Ive read somewhere that due to this the usb bootable option isnt available?
Have you ever tried using the usb boot option to boot into say.. ubuntu?

4)Has anyone of you ever tried running the chromiumos on this notebook.. like the hexxe builds that he distributes?Does chromiumos work fine on this notebook?

5)is the batttery replacable after opening up the back cover?

6) are the ssd drives replaceable... i read in one of the reviews that the ssds are of proprietry type so any ssd just cant be used .. but can these ssds be had frome the asus support?

7) the review also said that the fans are running continuously... has this been fixed in any of the recent bios update.. or any word from the asus support on fixing this any day?


Thanks for the help..

 

please upload the new bios-file to a hoster, so we can test it - thanks

 

You can download the new (204) bios files from the support section @ ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download U500VZ

 

Unfortunately this is not for the UX51VZA version that most (all) of us in this thread got, it's for the regular UX51VZ. The one that Quindor got today was for the A-version.

 

Just opened up my machine but sadly reverse-engineering the custom SATA connector was harder than I'd thought but here's some preliminary data.

(Listed from beginning of the 6 connector part)
3.3V
A?
B?
C?
D?
N.C.
[GAP]
GND
GND
U-SATA LANE
V-SATA LANE
GND
GND
Z-SATA LANE
Y-SATA LANE
GND
5V
5V
5V

Explanations:
The A,B,C,D connections are connected to internal VIAs on the Sandisk SSD. Hopefully nothing designed to lock out custom adapters...
The N.C. is probably not connected to anything (can't see a VIA, it's not connected to ground etc.).

The SATA lanes can be in any order. As there's no direct connection between the standard connector lanes to either of the custom connectors it's a bit hard to know. U/V and Z/Y are of course lane pairs.

There's space for at least a 7mm 2.5" SATA drive but the metal thingy holding the SSD PCBs have to be removed or modified.


About the SD card: There's absolutely no room for a deep SD card reader (even the current one have little room to spare). Anyone wanting to use a SDXC card as extra storage should try to find a micro SDXC to SDXC converter that's half the size of a normal one. Don't know if there exist anything like that though.

 

I am interested in this. Maybe there is a half sized SD adapter somewhere that will fit just perfectly into the U500...

 

One can hope, but why would a micro-to-standard SD converter be half size? I can imagine there being many devices that require a full size SD card to work properly (but few opposite cases; as silly as ours!), making that hypothetical adapter useless in the majority of cases...

Not to be a negative Nancy, but even if we had such an adapter, I think microSD cards top out at low capacities (32GB?) and low speeds.

My hopes are on a mSATA conversion kit. Someday.

 

1. I've been running Kubuntu on it for the past month. By default everything is run on internal card, but graphically demanded applications can be executed on Nvidia card. Check out the bumblbee project that adds suppport for the card. I haven't seen an option to run everything off NVIDIA, as the power consumption is 3 times greater and most of your applications do not require nvidia peformance. Sleep works fine and is very quick, about 1-2 sek, haven't tried hibernate.

3. You can switch between UEFI and normal bios mode. It would even boot without GPT )) boots of USB cdrom fine.

There were some more discussion about running Linux on this laptop in another thread on this forum.

 

Most of the adapters I've seen are mostly just hunks of plastic, and I'd be surprised if they couldn't be modified to work just be chopping off the end with an xacto knife or something.

 

This evening isn't going like I wanted it to...

I downloaded the BIOS update, used the nice Windows Flashing tool. Flash flash flash, reboot (turn off, turn on) and it enters the BIOS screen. Hmm, ok. Well, let's load the optimzed defaults and go!

BIOS again. Checked storage configuration, changed it, saved it again, reboot reboot reboot. A long story short, my laptop now fails to boot. It doesn't see the Windows partitions anymore and doesn't recognize a bootable device. The 2 SSD's are being seen just fine.

To my surprise the BIOS now holds a flashing utility (awesome!) so I figured I'd just flash back. Downloaded the 203 version, put it on a stick, the tool recognizes it and then prompts that I am not allowed to flash this because the build date of the BIOS file is older then what I am running. Well... of course it is! :S

So now I'm stuck with a non-booting laptop and of course Asus supported is closed.

So a word of warning, if you don't want to take the chance, do not flash the new BIOS.

------update
I also posted this on a dutch forum (Tweakers.net) and someone there knew the solution!

In bios:
Enable CSM
Disable Secure Boot
Restart
Et Voilá!

Tried it, and it worked!

No clue yet about the fan and such, but will keep everyone updated.

 

Could you please upload the BIOS for other members to test?

 

Gogo give us the BIOS!

 

Okay.... but you didn't get this from me.... and remember, it stopped my laptop from booting. I was able to fix it with some tips provided, but ask yourself if it's worth it to try a not-so-well functioning BIOS.

And further, I have not really noticed anything different about the fans. They are always on as before and seem the generate the same amount of noise too.

But if you feel lucky, have a go at it, just know, whatever happens won't be my fault!

UX51VZA-AS.204.zip - Solidfiles

 

Isn't it just this link?

 

As I said one page before;

This is not for the UX51VZA version that most (all) of us in this thread got, it's for the regular UX51VZ. The one that Quindor posted above is for the A-version.

 

Hi all, I'm new here, having been directed to this thread while looking for a replacement for my xps 15, and this looks like the perfect laptop, anyway, would someone here be able to measure how many mm a SD card sticks out ?

 

My SanDisk Ultra II and IIIs all stick out ~1.8cm and as I mentioned previously the card does not sit down in the slot and lock as normal - it just lays in the slot and is very loose/wobbly and there is no push to eject functionality.

 

What's the difference between these two versions? I got mine today for XoticPC and it's the UX51VZ version...not A. Everyone else has the A version??

 

That's....less than ideal, thanks all the same!

 

Quindor: You can still flash the 203 with this command: Winflash /nodate

 

Thanks a lot, if the fans really are not shut down this thing goes back to amazon. Coming from a Macbook Air this leaves me no choice but buy an MBP Retina . Besides the horrible, horrible noise from the fans this is a great laptop, unfortunately the noise is that annoying that I have to return it.

 

Wow, it still does not fix the fan noise? What a huge disappointment.

Quindor, are your CPU cooling profiles set for passive? Can the CPU clock down to 5% if it's not being used? Sometimes Asus SmartGesture seems to interfere with that and pegs minimal CPU frequency at 100%.

Probably won't matter...

I'm beginning to regret my purchase now, to be honest. The noise is far more annoying than I originally thought it would be. My ears actually start ringing after some hours on the laptop. I would not recommend this laptop to anyone else at this stage. In fact, given my poor experiences with Tech Support, and seeing some of the build quality issues here on the forum, I would not recommend any of their laptops anymore.

 

This is a shame.. was really hopefull for this BIOS. Havent tested it myself yet though.

I am not really regretting my purchase, if you look beyond the fan issue the laptop is the best I've ever owned, and I really love the ASUS Zenbook design. But in January im gonna take a couple of courses at school and by then I need a solution to make it more quiet in such an environment..

 

I totally agree. I currently need the notebook for my studies and so i am not able to return it or wait until something compareable is released.
I don´t understand why Asus keeps the fans running. The temperatures using Notebook fan control are just perfect without running any fans. But the problem that the fans start running for a very short time is still not solved. We need to figure out how we can put the ec in manual mode. But there seem to be no datasheet available for the ITE IT8572G.

After this bios i don´t think that asus will ever solve the noise problem...

 

Just flashed the new bios.
Can confirm that it wont fix the noise problem. But, it does actually help a bit. Almost ~50% lower noise.

Edit: Maybe it's placebo? Didn't have any problems with the flash.

 

There are 64 GB 70MBps read micro SDXC cards in the market now: Samsung microSDXC Pro
Worst case someone have to make a converter, I guess there's a market outside us U500/UX51 owners?

Is that an Asus special -> mSATA converter or Asus special -> SATA HDD converter you want?

 

Did you install the latest version 1.0.36? If not, you can find it here: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Smart Gesture
I also have the problem of regularly reset energy settings and updated the tool today. We will see if Asus fixed it...

 

Sad to see that many are regretting their purchases. I don't blame you guys, I'm on my 3rd UX51VZ and the webcam issue still bugs me. I can't even accurately reproduce it.

I think any computer that is unreliable is unacceptable, regardless of price. My Y470 was less than $900 but has been 100% reliable and consistent from the day it arrived, as it should be.

Overall though, I am keeping mine. There is nothing else really like it (aside from the rMBP). I was torn at some point between keeping it, or returning it for good, and purchasing a X51 and then a separate 1080p 13.3" travel laptop. But I hate the idea of two separate machines, and the 650M can play most of my games at decent settings.