ASUS U500vz/UX51vz Owners' Lounge!

Do someone have found any solution? I've tons of 19V, 4.74A (90W) and more powerfull 19V, 6A (120W) Acer AC adapters. If i could use one of them at work, it would be great. Do someone knows what is the name of this ASUS power jack? I'll replace the old Acer jack myself, if I can find somewhere the new connector.

Thanks!

 

Power plugs are defined by the outer and inner diameter + if the central pin diameter if there's one. Some plugs works as a 3 pole connector too (outer, inner and pin) and it's hard to see without disassembling the cable and/or plug.
I have been looking for plugs with the right outer dimension but haven't found any so it is probably a custom Asus part.

asusparts.eu sells the same adaptor that ships with the computer so it should be available from others too.

 

Hello,

I got my dh-71 model. I have several questions:

1) It comes with two drives (C and D). Does it mean is not in RAID? If so how to it up?

2) The C drive where is the OS comes with 56GB free space while the drive shows 112GB free. I am ok with the D drive but in the C drive, where is the OS, I am loosing more than 50% of space. I tried resseting windows 8 but reinstals to the same condition. How to recover that huge amount of space?
Thanks.

 

Thanks! So....which one is the right one? There are 3..

spare parts and options Asus UX51VZ - Zandparts Adapter

Mine is EXA2012YH, I cannot find any of that part number on my charger. Any idea?

Thanks.

 

It means it is in RAID, but partitioned into 2 partitions. I've deleted both and reinstalled win8. BTW, I think your lost space is for recovery purpose. If you delete all the partitions during the windows installation, you will be fine.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

I've never felt mine get above "lukewarm". Never been hot for me. But I will admit, I've never heard any fan noise either yet there have been a lot of complaints here about fan noise.

 

I am on 204 with no problems. If it were me, I wouldn't risk updating again as I think you have a couple of issues that not related to the BIOS. But if you want to, I would use FreeDos on a USB drive. You can install FreeDos on a USB by using the UNetbootin tool. FreeDos can be found here: FreeDOS | The FreeDOS Project and UNetbootin can be found here: UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

Do you have all data backed up elsewhere? (I use CrashPlan to backup everything automatically on the fly). If so, do you want to keep RAID? (I didn't, I broke it to install Win 8 on one drive, Mint Linux on the other)
Dependent on the answer, there are a couple of paths to take. The easiest one is to not need to keep the data on the drive.
I would reinstall Win 8, unless the BIOS is truly buggered, the install should catch the RAID and install fine.

Let us know what the situation is and I'll be happy to walk you through it.

I know that you are not a Linux guy, but loading up a live Linux instance will tell you if the BIOS is OK. If you have a friend that runs Linux, perhaps he can help you with this.

 

But the recovery partition is 20GB ,right? I have like 60GB available for C only after resetting OS so 20GB+40GB of something else. Is it normal?

 

Sent my dud back to Amazon, received my replacement - has the two ssd's in RAID 0 setup. I understand with striping it shouldn't have worked, so I'm thinking that before leaving the factory the other drive somehow was disconnected (and the specs for my machine, sticker on the bottom of the packaging said 128 GB + 128 GB), since the windows installation was working fine, so it must have happened before they installed Windows 8.

Anyways, if you order from amazon.ca, double-check and make sure you don't get a dud.

 

Hi everyone,

I recently received the Zenbook UX51VZA w/128+128GB SSD for work. I'm happy with the device overall (especially since I didn't have to pay for it ) , but there are a handful of nagging issues regarding ASUS' ATK Hotkey that seems broken under 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

1. Over the course of the work day, the ASUS hotkey software stack dies or stops responding completely. Meaning, none of that pretty animation pop-up you see when tweaking settings such as volume and backlight control. A full reboot seems to fix the problem however.
2. When ASUS' ATK Hotkey is active (like right after reboot), a handful of Fn+Fx key combos do not work:

• Fn + F2 (Wireless ON/OFF)...Does not work at all, although on-screen animated graphics and the tiny light indicator by the palm rest seems to indicate wireless is being toggled on or off. The actual wireless radio never shuts off.
• Fn + F3 (KB backlight UP)...Displays the "Keyboard Light Off" message and actually never changes the intensity of the backlight.
• Fn + F4 (KB backlight DOWN)...Displays the "Keyboard Light Off" message and actually never changes the intensity of the backlight.

There are three revisions of the ATK Package released by ASUS and I tried all of them including the latest 1.0.0027. They all exhibit the same problem.

Has anyone using Windows 7 experienced these issues, and if so found any solution to them?

P.S. There's a new 206 BIOS posted on ASUS' website below. But it's for UX51VZH model which may not be compatible with UX51VZ and UX51VZA. Anyone willing to give it a try?

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download UX51VZ

William

 

I've downloaded that package, but it is not compatible with my "VZA" model. Sorry.

 

The wireless button does not seem to work correctly under Win7 indeed. I fancy this is because the Win8 Intel wireless driver package for it has to be exchanged for its Win7 sibling, which apparently breaks the actual functionality. Pity, but it's a small issue and doesn't really bother me. Maybe if Intel updates its Win7 driver it could work again. I have 15.3.1 if I'm not mistaken (some months old now), but haven't checked for a new version yet.

The backlight function should work (and all others, as far as I can tell). Mine worked with the ATK version available in November already, and still does with the 1.00026 on the website (not more than 2 weeks old). Perhaps you downloaded a Win8-specific version, since you said 1.00027? There is a small Win7 section on the Asus website for our notebook now.

PS I've not seen the issue where the hotkeys stop working.

 

There is a 206 Bios for a UX51VZH. Wonder if that's the touch..

 

Hi Guys,

I am not sure if I am supposed to post here if I haven't even bought the laptop yet, but I have some questions if someone can kindly address them for me.

1. Can someone summarize the remaining known issues about this laptop (I heard they fixed the fan issue with a BIOS update)?

2. Is there any speculation that an updated model is coming out soon since this model is almost a year old already (not that it is possible to keep up with the newest hardware, but I do not want to hear that a new model just came out a week after I make this purchase either)?

3. I have heard a lot of references to the Samsung Series 7 Chronos as a possible alternative for this model. It sounds like they have about the same power, but Samsung has a much lower price tag, and has some extra features like Touch Screen (not that I care anyway). So can someone justify the extra hundreds of bucks to get the Zenbook instead of Chronos (I really want to like this model since I quite enjoy the 13-inch Zenbook I bought a few months ago)?

4. If I do not care about Touch Screen and would like traditional harddrives for bigger storage, while not losing the power or portability, are there any potential alternatives you folks could recommend?



Thanks so much for all your thoughts!

 

Not sure if this is ONLY UX51 specfic but figured I would put it here to be safe. (It likely works for all ASUS running Windows 8 that have the same processor family.)

Upon first boot up and after all live updating I had one error in Device Manger (yellow exclamation point) under Intel WiUSB. This looks like a USB controller but its actually the Intel WiDi driver and specific software. Under it I had the device: USB-IF xHCI USB Host Controller there with the error stating it could not load the proper driver. After doing a bunch of searching with claims of fixes from downloading USB 3 controller drivers to changing system day back to dec 1012 I happened upon the correct info. BTW one thing that was stated and made sense but did not give relief was to go to Intel and run there driver search utility. This showed that all my drivers were up to date but when it can to that specific one it stated it was there but that the OS did not support it. What I found was that the WiDi software needed to be updated.

I downloaded the newest version of Intel Wireless Display Software Version 4.0.18.0. Can be downloaded here: Intel WiDi 4.0.18.0

There is a note in there stating: This version of the Intel® Wireless Display software DOES NOT support Mobile Intel® 5 Series Chipset based systems (2010 Intel® Core™ Processors based systems). For these systems, please download Intel Wireless Display version 3.0.13. Hence why I felt it was safest to put it in the Owner's Lounge thread.

After downloading and installing this software package which it stated was updating the current software the error disappeared and the device listings under the WiUSB changed. The old controller was gone and two were listed in its place : Intel UoIP Bus & Intel UoIP Host Controller.

Apparently there is also a Widget to help control the WiDi while using it. It is suppose to allow you to stream a movie yet still use the desktop while doing so or does it more efficiently in any case. I have not tried it out yet so this is only passing along what I read on the subject.

BTW I think putting info like this into one monster thread is a horrible way to organize or more correct not organize the forums. Each major series should have its own forum folder and it takes no more space and would be a billion times easier for member to search and find what they are looking for. This makes me wish there was a dedicated ASUS forum site where things would be broken down like is normally done in forums.

 

I also wanted to report that my Ux51vz-XH71 I received yesterday from Provantage is dead quiet at idle. I have to put my ear within inches of the keyboard to hear the fans. When I removed the smart gestures to try the elcantech drivers and did a reboot the fans spun way up and I could then see how that could be VERY bothersome. They slowly reduced speed down to a very low level but not as quite as it was originally. I was not having issues with the smart gestures so I restores from the setpoint I had made. Everything is back to dead quite. Given this I am not sure if ASUS changed software or hardware or if there is that much of a variation is parts tolerance. But my laptop is dead quite as idle. I have not pushed it by running games; nothing but office and surfing.

 

Mine is also very silent (purchased two weeks ago came with bios 204 installed) while browsing, office or regular file management. The only time I heard the fans was while rendering from After Effects which really stresses the cpu, so perfectly acceptable. Haven't tried different touchpad drivers as I usually have a mouse plugged in since I'm using it for work.

Not many people commented on their backlight bleeding, I'd appreciate if more people said if they have a lot of backlight bleed while the screen is black.

wfhbright: I'll try to answer some of your questions.

In terms of issues the fans seem to be fixed in the newer models. As mentioned above I do have quite a bit of backlight bleed on mine, which isn't really noticeable with regular use but it's very visible while watching movies or any dark screen.

Another thing I wanted to point out, while not really a huge issue for most I don't think, is that the color profile it ships with and general calibration of the display is absolutely horrible. Since I use it for design work this was a big problem for me, as the first time I powered on Photoshop and looked at the color palette all grays looked like browns. It was not possible to display gray color. It ships with a custom Asus ICC profile selected as a default which is really terrible, I'd recommend everyone to change it to sRGB which is the standard. Even after selecting this profile the colors were still all over the place, calibrating the display fixed it, not sure how close you can get to accurate colors without a colorimeter. If you care that is.

I don't think there is a new model coming, there's the touch version they just started selling but since you said you don't care about touch I'd just buy the non touch model. You get a matte display instead of glossy which is much better if you're not gonna use touch. I think the next update will be when Haswell comes out which is still a few months away.

Can't really comment on Chronos 7 as I haven't seen it, there may be differences in build quality perhaps, but I don't think you'll regret buying the UX51 if you can afford the extra few hundred, it's a very nice laptop.

 

Thanks for the reply! So according to you, the fan issue is a hardware issue? It is not fixed by BIOS update but rather I just need to be lucky to get the newer machines?

 

I'm not sure to be honest. Asus may have changed something on the manufacturing line, since most people that got the early models said that, while reduced, the noise was still quite audible after upgrading to 204. But with the new models it seems to be a different story, the fans only kick in when the CPU is being stressed which is what you want. Another thing to maybe lookout for is which model you're getting.. I have the XH71 (the 512gb) maybe someone that got a DH71 recently can comment on the noise.

 

So, still no solution for the fan noise from Asus, rather than using fan speed control? I've got the ux51vza model (name of the bios). It's not too much, but quite annoying for such a wonderful pc.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Got my UX51VZA yesterday evening. What a fantastic machine.

I had to replace my trusty eight years old Asus 3878GLP because the display hinge broke recently. The Asus 3878GLP is the great grand father of the UX51VZA as it was in the same target range at its time as the UX51VZA today: 15" high screen resolution (1400x1050), dedicated graphics adapter (ATI Mobility 9700M), good cooling, low noise level when idle and under load, 2 GB RAM, 4x USB, 1x card reader. Same price range. The UX51VZA is the ideal replacement for it.

I got the 2x 256 GB SSD model with Adata SSD, opted for 12 GB RAM and Windows 8 Pro installation. I let the retailer break up the RAID 0 configuration into two single drives upon installation. Data safety is more important for me than the added speed. This machine is still impressive fast.

My first step was to update the BIOS from 203 to 204. This seems to be the latest version available for the UX51VZA. The fan noise is audible but it does not bother me. It is on the same level as with my 3878GLP. So no problems here. I will install Hardware Noise Control though just because I can

Build quality is great. Fantastic screen: great colours, no dead pixels. Sound quality of the built in speakers is really good. Touchpad is set correctly into the chassis. So I am a happy camper. Lets see if this one lasts eight years also

Cheers

 

Hopefully I am not "beating a dead horse" by stating again that I have never heard the fans in this machine. I received it in mid-December so it's not a very new build.
The previous post about the video settings jarred loose a thought - I only ran the Asus version of Win 8 for maybe 30 minutes. I broke the RAID and installed Mint 14 on one drive and a clean Win 8 Pro install on the other.
So no video setting problems (nor any backlight bleeding, though I don't think that's connected to the Windows drivers/settings), nor fan noise issues.

Perhaps it is worth someone giving a clean install of Win 8 a try. Though I believe that there are a few Linux folks here, perhaps they can weigh in on whether they have fan noise.

 

I just got my UX51VZ-DH71 last week. It is the "VZA" version on BIOS 203.

So far I am happy with it.

I can definitely hear the fans at idle, although I do not find them particularly annoying. It is hard to say whether it is abnormally loud or not, but it is definitely audible. Actually it is probably quieter than my old Dell Studio 15.

I am currently running it off the way it was from the factory (i.e. ASUS Windows 8) although I might be tempted to re-format and start from clean.

 

I personally prefer the ASUS over the Chrono 7 but that just my personal preference. There are a lots of Samsung products I think are awesome and own a good number numerous BluRay SGIII flt screen etc.. but dealing with Samsung when you have an issue or waiting for a uptake is painful. As this is a brand new design and there have issues have already been found I would at the very least wait or get ready for what could be a long wait. Take the video driver issues as Samsung has taken over driver dev instead of allowing the manf to do it. That could lead to issues IMO.

In simply looking at the differences in my ASUS I just received this week versus all the issues I have read about in early manufactured ones I think brings it home for me. I would wonder what kind of support Samsung is going to give. Based on my copy of the laptop things have all been ironed out. I think you are going to run into those same type of issues with the new Samsung release.

 

I have a Windows 8 Pro install done by my retailer instead of the standard Windows 8 install.

Also I have a UX51VZA. What do you have? UX51VZ or UX51VZA? Trying to find a pattern here. There must be a reason for the different designations. Also the UX51VZA BIOS is still on 204 revision while the UX51VZ is already on 205.

There is the possibility that the thermal paste application is of different quality, just like the other quality issues some have some don't. Thus those with a bad paste job need higher idle fan speeds than those with a perfect one. Also they could have used different fan manufacturers. It is common to have a second source supplier for some parts.

Fans in my machine are audible but not annoying. Maybe because I am used to it by my old 3878GLP.

 

But I still cannot totally justify the extra 500 to 600 bucks I have to throw for the Asus given their configurations are very close.

 

So I have had this PC for about 2 weeks now and have been loving it.

Except all the sudden the speakers stopped working. No sound comes out. The volume popup equalizer thing shows that a signal is coming through (the meter bounces). The headphone jack and hdmi both produce audio just fine.

It is NOT muted... I promise. lol.

The speakers are set as default and also enabled in sound settings. I have tried toggling back and forth between enabling hdmi, headphones, and speakers to no avail.

The HDMI runs off of the nVidia HD audio driver while the speakers use the realtek HD audio driver. I have updated/uninstalled/reinstalled both and no change.

I called asus and they told me to do a system refresh. However, I really want to avoid this as I have software with a one time activation that I don't want to lose.

The only other thing I notice that seems weird is that when I look at the driver information through the Device Manager, it shows a different driver version number than the realtek driver I installed. It shows the correct driver number when I navigate by right clicking the speaker icon in the tray...

But I'm at my wits end here.

 

I noticed that in the device manager, there are 2 places that show audio drivers:

1) Sound, video, and game controllers
2) Audio Inputs and Outputs

The sound, video, and game controllers location shows the realtek driver with correct version number.

The audio inputs and outputs > speakers shows the realtek driver. However, when I look at details, I shows Windows as the driver manufacturer and lists the wrong version number.

The nVidia HD driver does not show on either location in the device manager.

 

The sound setup is the same on mine, it may be a driver to deal with volume or the driving of the speakers themselves or maybe the optical outputs. I don't have an Nvidia sound driver listed but the sound comes through fine.

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to open the case and substitute the drives? Any tutorial available yet? Did anyone try without invalidating the warranty?
I like the idea of 128x2 in raid0 (which is 256 total then), but I already own a 256SSD and I would like to know if it possible to make a change whenever I like in the future.

 

The hard drives are a proprietary connection, no standard SATA connection drives will fit, we've tried

 

is there any space to place an adapter? I believe that the connection pins are the same (SATA standard) and that just the cable shape is different.
So the two SSDs are in that format to. Are they linked to the motherboard with a cable or hardplugged in?

 

Typing "u500vz ssd" on Google image search shows how the SSD drives are attached but to save you the trouble they are connected with a PCB to card edge design similar but not equivalent to a PCI express minicard. SSD card thickness is 1mm, connecting "fingers" are on one side only with the opposite side of the connector having a ground plane. The interface is the SATA protocol but with only 3.3V feed so even with an adapter it would be hard to feed a standard 5V 2.5" SSD device - though not impossible.

 

First it's the MXM slot, then it's the SATA port and finally they came for you

 

I see. SSD drives are totally not standard (that's why they could achieve such tickness). I am worried about replacement.
After years of r/w operations, if something gets worse, only Asus can give you a replacement.

 

Well it's possible to buy replacement "drives" however they are very expensive :/ Asusparts.eu lists them anyway, don't know if they're stocked or not.

There should be relatively easy to make a mSATA adaptor and perhaps possible to make a 2.5" adaptor (depends on getting power either from the unpopulated SATA connector or the nearby USB port).

 

Like others said the SSD is proprietary, meaning it's not upgradable and you can check out our video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF4RYrjLD50

 

Yeah, it's going to be a mod project rather than a plug and play

 

I just had a nightmare of a problem, trying to remove Intel Anti-Theft Service from my laptop, ended up formatting the whole thing. I can't get a small thing to work; when I use the fn+any key, it does not display anything on the screen (the keys work though). E.g when I set the backlit level, it does change, but nothing shows up on the screen.

EDIT: nevermind, found the solution.

 

What is the solution? I do have the same problem.

 

It will be the control software.

 

It's in ASUS On Screen Display. Search for that, for me it was in a folder on my desktop, ASUS > System tools.

 

You have my sympathies! Intel Anti-Theft Service is a real mess. I spent a couple of months trying to get Intel to own the problem, and after escalating all the way to their CEO, finally got them to take the time to truly uninstall it through a live session.

The software is now supported by Intel's McAfee division which outsources their support. The "product" needs to be pulled from the market and Intel needs to design the means to cleanly uninstall it from all systems. The uninstallation process sometimes makes the situation worse, as it did with my system. There are guys in Europe who had to have their motherboards replaced because Intel refused to help them with the uninstallation.

Hopefully your uninstall worked, I still cannot install any extensions for Chrome on my Windows drive due to how Intel Anti-Theft Service screws up the encyption when uninstalling.

Glad to hear that you got the other issue corrected!

 

Ah, found it. Thank you.

Cheers

 

Hello,
i am about to buy this model, but i am considering buying the warranty extension. Already searched the thread, but I want to know if it is possible to buy the laptop and then buy the warranty extension elsewhere (from another online shop). And within what time you can do that.

Moreover, is this extension covering things like SSD or videocard that stops working?? I will use the laptop to play, so videocard may just give up after 3-4 years of intense gameplay.

 

I've tried searching this thread and haven't found my answer, so apologies if this has already been asked/answered.

This is the first laptop I've owned that came with Windows 8, and therefore OEM recovery/restore partitions. My last laptop was an HP Envy (before they murdered that brand) and it had a recovery DVD with the factory image on it.

I understand that Windows 8's push-button-reset functionality more or less replaces the DVDs of old. However, I'm not quite sure how it works in practice.

Let's say I wanted do away with the current partitions and either reinstall Windows, or give some Linux distros a spin. What would be the "best" way to eventually restore to factory conditions, if I wanted to? The system image that I can create with the Windows 7 File Recovery applet doesn't seem to include the recovery/restore partitions. I haven't tried giving them drive letters, though.

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

To do a factory restore you push Fn + F9 during boot up, that will take you to the built in feature.

 

Right, but what if I want to remove the recovery partitions. Is it possible to back them up with the option to later restore them in some fashion?

 

If you remove them then they're gone. You'd have to resintall Windows from a USB drive or use a USB optical drive and Windows disc.