ASUS U500vz/UX51vz Owners' Lounge!

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sound system is better in u500 or in dell xps l702x ? all colors are accurate? and red too?

 

I was going to say u500 but I thought you were comparing it to the lx521.

 

l521x has no subwoofer and of course the sound is not so good.

 

I am extremely happy with the speakers in this laptop, especially when plugging in the subwoofer. I recently had some problems with my home theatre, and I used the laptop sound+subwoofer instead of my regular speakers watching a movie on a projector, and it works great! The sound is better than any other laptop i have tested..

 

all colors are accurate? and red too?

 

Accurate enough for the regular user, but not for someone working with photos/videos and need 95-100% color accuracy. Has been discussed earlier in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...nced-15-6-hd-ips-gt650m-quad-core-i7-266.html

 

Now there is a new bios for A-version too =) Haven't flashed it yet, tomorrow then...

Oh s***! After the bios-update, the screen brightness halved! I have to keep it in 100% so that it would be like 40% as i normally keep it.. !? Nice work, Asus, nice work!

Here's the problem. Nothing happens on screen brightness until the adjuster is almost in the middle :/

 

You should be able to roll back to the older BIOS....

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me. The BIOS update turns auto brightness back on. Turn it off and restart. Should fix it.

 

Hope you can fix it turning off auto brightness. What about fans?

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Where can I download the new version? From the asus website I can choose a operating system for the u500vz but not for the u500vza.

 

Didn't do anything, the brightness works again (after several reboots - had some issue with IRST).

But I don't know about the fans. The fan of the gpu is still noisy and annoying because it keeps changing rotating sound. It probably didn't do anything to it. And the fans of the computer, i really can't say if there is any change. For me it still sounds the same.

jab76
The computer is U500VZ but the bios is probably names as A-version. Check your bios-version from system information or from Bios (go to the bios and click F12, the version is shown in the right lower corner, with or without A-letter). And if you download the wrong version, WinFlash won't let you flash it anyway...

 

Thanks for the reply. The only reason right now I would want a bios update is to let it spin down the fans.
I've downloaded the u500vz file from the asus website after choosing the downloads for the u500vz model. Just now realised that both VZ AND VZA files are downloadable after choosing the VZ model. And downloads for the VZA model are not available. Weird... Maybe earlier there was only a version for one model.

 

I have followed this thread on the sidelines for a long time and have now decided to participate.

So, I applied the BIOS 204 for my ux51vza-model and it did not mess with the brightness or anything. I think it made the fan noise quieter but it is still there though Another thing I noticed was that my laptop boots alot faster from total shut down - about 10 seconds and I am on the desktop. But I am not sure it has anything to do with the BIOS, only an observation I did after the BIOS update, which I hadn't experienced before.

The minus with this BIOS update is that I cannot acess the BIOS anymore. Anybody experienced this, and has found any solution?

 

See my reply in the other thread.

 

Be sure to let Asus know about the fans still being noisy.

The other day I watched my dad's old Sony quadcore notebook (2010) in action, and it pained me to realize it was dead silent during light workloads. As our laptop should also be! Again I don't understand the desire to keep the fans on when the temperatures are this low.

 

could somebody record fan noise from u500vz with the last BIOS ? i want to buy it tomorrow and i dont want to make a mistake. i think many people want to see it on youtube. thanks.

 

You must be doing well. $2000 p/h income. With that kind of income if you are worried about data loss, you should invest in professional automatic data backup services for peace of mind.

Current SSD drives are much more reliable today than mechanical drives and will most likely outlive the life of any laptop they are in.

 

I know this looks unlegit, but what is that adapter?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/256GB-ASUS-...puting_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item4abe3b90fc

Also found these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-K50I-R...935?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item256045c83f
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-e-...014?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a1ed84f66
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Asu...615?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item416a1b36b7
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-K50-K5...sk_Controllers_RAID_Cards&hash=item2a278d0e96

 

Fan noise workaround: The Notebook Fan Control utility is now able to fully silence the UX51VZA fans, without the intermittent starting up of the fans that plagued previous attempts. The solution is still a bit of a hack and comes at the expense of 1% of CPU utilization due to frequent polling, but it does seem to work!

I am running it now and so far everything seems good. Temps approach 50C with Chrome, Explorer, and a Graph program running, fans at 0% and room temp at ~19.5C. This is just for 15 mins so far, but it does look like a CPU threshold near 55C or maybe slightly above should be able to maintain complete silence. I'm stoked.

Look here on the computerbase forum. The download link is on the first page and the UX51VZA configuration file is included.

//edit:// Also after extended time on the laptop (plugged in), running a word processor, stats program, Explorer, and using Chrome to play music over the internet, everything was peachy. At a 55C threshold for the minimum fan speed, it never kicked in. The laptop body now feels lukewarm, as expected, which is actually pleasant this time of year, and certainly not cause for concern IMO.

 

GREAT! Can we say PERFECT LAPTOP now?

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

No, not without smartcard reader, fingerprint* reader, Thunderbolt and Expresscard slots. ;-)
This seems like a good solution for those that want 100% silence, hope the fan control is perfect now or at least have no big problems.

(* easy to bypass but cool )

 

Just a followup on my problem here. Yesterday when I unplugged the charger from my laptop, it started burning (short curcuit). I did not realize that the dog once again had chewed on it and through my electrical tape I had protected it with after the first incident. Anyway, I cannot use the charger any more and I am a bit worried that my battery or power supply is broken inside the laptop, but I do not believe it short curcuited any time it was connected to the laptop. Still paranoid..

When I used the laptop after this incident, it had around 38 % charge. Just all of a sudden it reported that it only had 8 % battery left, and that I must save my work etc. 10 seconds later it reported back to 38 %. It might be a coincidence (I use BatteryBarPro, maybe it is bugged) but I want to ask you guys if you ever ran into a similar problem on this laptop?

I am now without a charger, talking to different sellers on ebay etc making sure I get the correct one..

 

Mine is now totally broken aswell. Did you find a replacement?

 

You guys have very expensive dogs LOL

 

I haven't seen the original PSU for sale yet. Most companies begin selling PSUs at the same time the computer but Asus obviously likes to "think different"...

PS. try taking a small amount of lemon/lime juice and rubbing it on the cable. Most animals hate the smell and taste of citrus fruits

 

u500vz too?

 

is it possible to use raid-1 in u500vz ?

 

Yes, UX51VZA is the BIOS-internal type/name of the U500VZ/UX51VZ that everyone has. I think it is the only model actually available at the moment.

 

Hi guys,
I have a problem with my U500VZ and wanted to check if any of you have got it. I've updated the BIOS to latest (204?) today and after a successful update the system wanted to shut down, and I did. But now it boots straight into BIOS and I can't get pass it. Nothing helps. Resetting the settings, trying to boot from a usb stick, changing boot order (doesn't work since I can't chose it) - nothing works. The hard drives are detected, and it's set to RAID, but whatever settings I change nothing happens. Just boot into BIOS.

Has anyone experienced it?

 

I believe someone else had this issue. The solution is in the other thread. Change CSM then disable Secure Boot.

 

Has this laptop a HDMI with dual link or does it have displayport so it is possible to use an external 2560 high resolution screen?

 

Well aren't you a christmast miracle in person! It worked! Thanks a lot. I did search but apparently I suck at it . Thanks a thousand times!

 

Has anyone noticed a reduced battery life since installing 204? I used to be able to get a good 6 to 7 hours, but most I get out of it now seems to be a thight 3 hours? :S Maybe I'm imagining things, but my batterybar pro also reports the same. Strange thing is that the wattage in use has not gone up.

 

I feel like there may be a change but I haven't been able to test it yet.

 

No problem! I know what it feels like to have a mess of a very expensive new laptop!

@Quindor-- my battery life seems to be much less as well. Just a hunch so far, my CPU seems to be running pretty high, even with not doing anything. But I've played around with my power settings so that could have something to do with it.

 

I haven't noticed anything like that. The battery time estimation can swing wildly (2 h to 7 h and back) depending on load so it's a bit hard to see though.

 

Keep an eye on the GPU activity using the option to display an indicator on the bottom right by going into the desktop tab in the graphics drivers, maybe something is incorrectly activating it and draining power.

 

Hi all,

I have the following request.
I play with the idea to buy the Asus UX51VZ and have a few questions:

1. I would use the notebook outweigh music production: Ableton Live with a lot of VST plugins (Massive, Sylenth, etc.), that means larger projects of electronic music. Is the UX51 suitable for this purpose?
2. I want to buy the 256GB version. Do I have the possibility to change the SSDs?
3. I read somewhere on the net that someone has successfully upgraded the UX51 to 12GB RAM. According to ASUS, this should not be possible. Can you say a word?
4. How does it do with the fans and processor? Was the volume problem solved with the fan already, or is yet to be made​​? Does the processor become warm quickly?

regards

 

2. Absolutely not, Asus uses proprietary connectors and also seems that it's not possible to rebuild RAID 0 array if for some reason the user decides to destroy it.
3. Yes you can upgrade to 12GB, only 4GB are soldered.

 

*Just marking the thread as participated*

 

THX!

But the most important question was the first one:
I would use the notebook for music production: Ableton Live with a lot of VST plugins (Massive, Sylenth, etc.), that means larger projects of electronic music. Is the UX51 suitable for this purpose?

Can anybody say a word?

 

Hello owners of U500..
Can anyone tell me by how much years the warranty can be extended for?

And is the extention international?

Thanks.

 

Hi everybody

Is it normal that the top part of the mousepad (the edge that points to the keyboard) has no function? My finger movement is not recognised on a stripe of about 1cm over the whole width of the pad.
And also the pads overall performance is poor.
Is it broken?

Cheers

 

Since I've been following up on the fan thing, here's a brief summary:

- Normally, the fans are on when the laptop is idle (i.e., no or light workload). Even with the newest 204 BIOS, I personally did not appreciate the associated noise production. It's not that it is crazy loud, but just noticeable enough to irritate me.

- In all cases, if you increase workload, the fans will need to spin faster, causing more noise. This is normal and to me also acceptable. The resultant cooling is adequate, the CPU will not throttle unless you go to extremes with multiple heavy tasks (video + cpu). The CPU is not a real hot-head, but it IS a 35W model: Lots of processing power, in exchange for more Watts and heat.

- There is a free software, third-party 'fix', called Notebook Fan Control that allows you to control the speed of the fans yourself. I used this to stop the fans altogether at idle, and found that the laptop can handle that fine. The fan control can be (and should be) based on the same temperature reading the BIOS normally uses itself. Although the program can reduce noise, at the expense of higher temperatures ( be careful with this!), it cannot magically improve the design of the laptop (not saying it is bad). So if it really needs 100% cooling due to heavy workloads, the software tool cannot change that. You can get it on this German forum, the download is on the first page:

Computerbase.de forum

 

Hi,

a quick question: Anyone else who has problems with the back lit keyboard? I can't use the fn+f3/f4 keys to turn the light on/off. Also, when resuming from standby the keyboard never lights up. I always have to restart the computer for it to light up.

/A

 

@ascana

No, I have no such problem!

@all

I am using firefox. is there any way to use gestures to navigate around? would be so convenient!

 

@kaycee - Now that you say it, mine is the same. Never noticed that, I guess my fingers reside further down.

 

The U500 lends itself well to music production. Ableton runs fine. It remains at around 30% load running a large 40 channel project that uses massive amounts of effects/VSTs. I enjoy the good quality of the in-built speakers - if you don't have access to your monitors they do a fine job for the constraints laptop speakers have.

Did have an increase in occasional flickering on my external monitor though, although this grounding issue does not affect my studio monitors and is fixable. It will depend on your own setup and is not exclusive to this laptop.

Also, keep in mind that there is only one 3,5mm audio jack for both recording- and playback equipment that utilizes this jack.