*** ASUS Zephyrus M (GM501) Owner's Lounge ***

Once you get it, when you first turn it on and get the initial Windows 10 Setup Wizard, it will prompt you to connect to a Wireless Network, click on SKIP on the bottom right otherwise you will be forced to login with a Microsoft account which I strongly advice against.


Also, when it prompts you to enter a password, leave the blank for now as during our tweaking session, we will need to reboot a lot and that will just slow us down.


First thing I want you to do to save us time is to right click on your start menu button, then choose SYSTEM, from there, hit Rename This PC and choose a name for your computer. (ie. I name mine TITAN). The name should be in capital letter. Some of the tweaks are tied to the PC name and thus, you want to name it properly from the get go rather than keeping the default random name which Windows assigns it ( DESKTOP-999-BLABLABLA)


Next, go to PC Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and perform all the Windows updates. After rebooting, check for updates again just to make sure there aren’t any more updates


The moment you are in Windows, go ahead and do all the Windows updates which will take a long time, then download and install TeamViewer then run it, it will give you an ID/Password which you could pass on to me via a PM so I can connect to you.


You won't be able to PM me unless I PM you first so what you want to do is, when you get it, just tag me by using the @ sign then type my username right after it with no spaces and I will PM you then

 

Hey @Ultra Male , my Zephyrus M got here a day early and it's all set for tweaking. I've got it updated and teamfinder ready to go at your convenience. Thanks!

 

It's TeamViewer that you want to have installed I don't know what Teamfinder is

It's 4:48AM here in Dubai now so I will PM you now but will reach out to you tomorrow for the tweaking which should be around 5 hours earlier than now

 

sorry, meant Teamviewer

 

Just going to post this here in case someone else has this issue.....

I have a chronic crashing problem with a 6 month old GM501GM - reliability history tells the story, with "Windows Audio Device Graph Isolation stopped working" a repeated entry in my logs. Sometimes the audio craps out, sometimes I get a BSOD too. I've tried reinstalling audio drivers, checked any other audio software isn't getting in the way, disabled sound enhancements, etc

I've just finished a chat with Microsoft who say it could be a "corrupted sound card" (lol) on the laptop and suggested rolling back to version 1709 of WIndows 10. I declined their kind offer of nuking my entire system as I've only just done another clean install with the latest version (1809), and this problem has been around for a while now, at least 1803 and onwards.

Web searches point to audiodg.exe being the issue - this is simply the WIndows audio interface. At wits end, and don't know whether to send the laptop back for service, when this seems to be a Windows issue?

On the off chance someone has had this and fixed.....you never know!!!

 

Back to where...who is your vendor? Have you contacted your vendor for Support?

 

Ahh yes, should have said - this one was from a large well known online retailer in the UK. I guess I'd have to ask them but they would normally refer me to manufacturer support resources as they didn't build the laptop (they have their own line of Clevo based hardware too). It's just a bit odd that something that seems to be a software issue could mean sending the laptop in to Asus - they might not even provide an RMA on these grounds.

 

Quick question: the GM501GSXS74 comes with 1TB Firecuda Hybrid SSD/HDD.

Do you guys think it's worth it to replace this with a full SSD?

 

If you think it's worth I personally don't think it's worth the extra money as long as the OS is on a ssd which it is already setup like that. I bought a firecuda 2tb(not ssd) hard drive and most of my games are on it I don't mind it and to be honest the loading speed isn't slow to me I have ffxiv I transfered it to the ssd from my firecuda to test the loading speed and honestly I did not notice much difference.

Sent from my H3223 using Tapatalk

 

Ok, in these days I am trying to mess around with TS to figure out some weird things. I think I can say now that all this "enable speedshift" thing is just a lot confusing, as from what I've seen, speedshift feature it's already activated, and that box it's just to set a fixed and not dynamic value.
Going in the TPL section, it shows the "speedshift" box already been ticked and locked. Moreover, if you leave the speedshift EPP box "disabled" (the one in the main throttlestop window) going in FIVR section, in the info box on the right it still displays that speed shift is active with a value of 84, and I noticed that it changes to 0 when you change the Windows 10 power option to high performance, and changes also to 0 when cpu is in medium/intense load. As a result of that, I tried disabling Speedstep and it really does no effect whatsoever, regardless that speedshift box is ticked or not.

 

Leave the power option on balanced when change it to high performance it will completely overwrite you throttle stop settings and as for speedshift I am having a hard time finding a sweet spot too people have said in this forum that 120 is the best if you leave at 0 or completely untick speedshift the processor will constantly run in boost mode which will cause high temps and also remember to keep the battery power plan on balanced

Sent from my H3223 using Tapatalk

 

My plan is already always on balanced, setting to high performance was just a test. Because what I meant is that, even if you don't set a speedshift value in TS, I think it is already active anyway (with an average value of 84), but dynamically changes instead of being a fixed chosen value.

 

Update: it seems that actually Windows 10 messes up with ThrottleStop EPP setting. Just read these two posts:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/page-812#post-10759237

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/page-812#post-10759314


This may also be the cause of stuttering. I think I will disable Speedshift EPP in TS for now, and let windows manage it.
I will try to lower temps by other ways, like lowering the multi-core ratio and such.

 

If you don't mind please share your results with your setup? because I am also having a hard time keeping temps down

Sent from my H3223 using Tapatalk

 

Of course, I'll let you know if I get some concrete results.

 

By the way, shouldn't the ROG logo on the lid turn off when using battery?
I swear I read that in the previous pages, but mine doesn't turn off, it remains on all the time. Is it maybe the new 306 bios, asus changed something so that it remains on?

 

It seems that there are multiple model for the Asus Zephyrus GM501. For the one with GTX 1070, do they all have the same configurations but different model number for specific stores?

From Asus website, there are 3 different model number but the specs are all the same:
GM501GM-WS74
GM501GS-XS74
GU501GM-GZ024T

And then there is a version for Costco: GM501GS-US74

 

From what I know, the "GM501GM" has the Nvidia 1060, while the other GM and GS ones may differ from what ssd they have, if 256gb or 512gb version.

 

@Jena_Plissken That's what I thought to, but then both the Costco and Best Buy version seems to have the same specs, but different model number:

Costco (GM501GS- US74)
Best Buy (GM501GS XS74)

Specs seems the same, but they could be wrong (e.g. Best Buy have the wrong picture):
- Intel® Core™ i7-8750H Processor 2.2GHz
- GTX 1070 (regular, not Max-Q)
- 16 GB RAM
- 256GB SSD + 1TB Firecuda Hybrid

I am planning to buy this laptop, so just doing my due diligence.

 

Hello, it's been quite a while since I've been on this forum and when seeing my signature saw that I still had my 1st laptop in the signature and that brought me into these forums. I just recently bought the Asus Zephyrus M a week ago and I've liked it so far, kind of read the owner's lounge throughout the week and has been quite interesting.
It's been one of the laptops I've liked so far and has been able to provide the use I needed and be able to play games without much worry of throttling or lowering quality just to play. Right now I've been playing COD BO4, Far Cry 5, and AC Odyssey. I have my laptop with 2 displays running when at home, so was able to monitor the temps when playing. At first, thought that this would throttle when I saw it reach past 90 per below information after I ran Throttlestop and has been great so far.

I did download ThrottleStop and followed the steps and other guidance and have brought the temperatures down on gaming. The highest it has gone has been about 85 degrees. The temps usually average around 79 degrees with slight jumps to 85 degrees while gaming, idle computer not in use stays around 40 degrees and while using it stays around 55 degrees. Also while gaming I do turn on the Overboost fans. GPU highest has been about 74 degrees.

At first, it went to about 93 to 95 but since applying the ThrottleStop settings it has managed to drop down. I will likely not repaste but will switch out the Hard drive to the 1 TB SSD that I have. I just don't have it to go through with the whole teardown of the laptop to repaste(have a hard time with small places and a bit on the unsteady on hands).

This is what I used for ThrottleStop:
-Speed Shift on at 118
-CPU core current -125mv
-CPU cache current -65mv

Sorry, can't remember all those that I found helpful but wanted to still say Thank you for the information you put on the forum and links as well.

It has been great so far, the last 2 gaming laptops I've had which didn't do much research like this one, had thermal throttling, couldn't run games at good settings or was before the Pascal GPU's.

 

Those who have this laptop, can you tell me the specs for the 2nd hard drive?

I am thinking of replacing it with SSD< but not sure if this is 2.5" 7mm or 9mm. Asus website didn't specify.

 

Hello,
Nominal Form Factor: 2.5"
Media Rotation Rate: 5400 RPM

https://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/hdd/firecuda/?sku=ST1000LX015#2-5-inch-specs

This is the one on my machine.

Manual for drive:
"Allow a minimum clearance of 0.030 in (0.76 mm) around the entire perimeter of the drive for cooling."
https://www.seagate.com/www-content...top-fam/laptop-sshd/en-us/docs/100802299g.pdf

 

Thanks, for linking the manual for the drive, @lmanlo !

Page 9, Section 2.4, show the height of the drive, which is 7mm.

 

Anyone?

And I have actually another question, if someone can answer me. After reboot, how much time should it take to complete the switch from G-Sync to Optimus mode? On mine it takes a bit long, and I don't know if it's normal or not: everytime after the switch and system reboot, I have to wait for some nvidia background process to do its things, then wait for the screen to adjust resolution automatically, and the whole thing takes around 2 minutes.

Thanks

 

Hello,

Tested it out to see how long it took. It seems it takes about 50 seconds to get restarted back to system and about another 30 seconds for the message that it is changing to go away and monitor to flash.
It seems to vary on the switch but from the test I performed it stayed under 2 minutes for switching to Optimus and then switching back to discrete.

I expect it to vary but this was my results on my unit.

Not sure about the ROG logo as haven't been able to test it out and not sure if I would get a chance to.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

 

Hello
Well I actually never use optimus but for testing purpose I switched and it was fairly quick.
I have no idea for the ROG logo though. I only disabled the sound at startup.

 

@lmanlo @IXVIXXII:

Thanks to both for the answers.
One thing: are you using the zephyrus as it was out of the box, or have you done a clean install?

Anyway, I did some tests and I can be more precise now.
To me, after having chose to change mode and then rebooted the system, the dpi setting always changes to the "default" one, as when no graphic driver is installed at all, and then it takes from 1 to 2 minutes to the dpi setting to be changed again to 100% since the message "adapter switching" appears. After that, I always have to go into screen properties and confirm a user disconnection to apply the dpi changes, and the switching is finally complete.

Isn't that the same to you? If not, I wonder what could be wrong...

 

Yes, I am using mine as it was out of the box, except uninstalled apps that I didn't need or use. But did not perform a clean install.

Not sure as for when mine has restarted with the new settings it shows, "Display adapter is currently switching, please wait..." then the screen flickers and then it is the same as it was before and within the timeframe, I mentioned above. Mine was set up as 125% since the start of using it and haven't switched it lower as it has worked as needed. So not sure if any changes could cause the issue. Haven't had to change it as it has stayed the same.

 

Hi guys! Just got the M with gtx 1070 love it! Exactly what I was after! Even came with a asus rog USB fusion head set and rog mouse and backpack! After a days use it’s all been nice updated all the drivers and asus stuff! Had a minor issue with the USB charging asus app but updated it (from another website not asus that wouldn’t open) and all good.

After a few hours updating windows and drivers and asus stuff I installed black ops and pubg chrome and discord! One thing I noted I played around and to get gsych to work I had to goto the rog gaming Center turn off gsych and restart and then back on the discrete mode to let me have the option of gsych in the Nvidia software.

Few small issues the rog button stopped working and mic off button (nothing a quick reset didn’t fix) also once today playing PUBG the game really starting lagging from 140fps to 60 again a game quit and open fixed that.

Just then I was playing black ops and had discord on and several times a few minutes in I would get a buzzing noise through the headset then all audio would stop the only fix is to quit COD and discord and re open them. It’s weird because Spotify still worked seems like a audio driver? I didn’t get any errors or anything. I was using my Bose headset plugged into the audio port I’ll try my USB Logitech headset tomorrow and see if it does it again. Anybody else had similar issues? All my drivers are up to date.

Other then that wow! I can’t belive the temps 80c for both running cod and PUBG on medium settings with gsych.

Will report back in a week

 

Also has anybody plugged the M into a 144hz at 1080p? what adaptor did you use? somthing like this? https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Adapters/Thunderbolt/73080-TB34K2DP
a thunder bolt type c to display port? is there any way of plugging in a dvi cable at 144hz? cheers!

 

Hi everybody, I need your help

I recently bought one and i am globally satisfied.
I have erased all the data from the previous user, and tried to use it.
I have discovered the battery is not charging and it even boot without the adapter...
It says it is charging but actually it doesn't since the logo is an empty battery and when i click on it it says 100%.
When i go to the bios it says 0%.
It's impossible for me to reflash the bios - already 306 - since there is no juice for it...
In HW monitor it says WEAR levels 100%...but yesterday everything was working properly...now using it only with my adapter...

I will open it on sunday to check what's going on inside.

Anybody has ever seen this problem ?

In the mean time, i just want to inform i have a model with 16GB + 4GB ...so 20GB of RAM in order to have a dual channel performance... does it really work with this amount ? even if dual is not the same ? it is a 4gb of crucial ddr4 2400 but cupz shows DUAL CHANNEL

Also, what kind of keyboard it is ? can i unplug every letter to make AZERTY into a QWERTY for instance ? Or simply for replacement...
Any website recommendation ?

Finally, i want say thank you for all the feedbacks you have provided, i m managing 90C temperatures without repasting, with a core undervolt of -125 and cash of -55.

 

If you installed the nvidia drivers on the Asus support page (as I think), I strongly suggest you to get rid of them, do a cleanup with DDU, and then install the latest official drivers on nvidia website.
My advice: never trust the video drivers provided by the pc manifacturer, as much often they are an older modded version which also lacks support to the latest titles and Win10 updates.

 

Guys,

I have also this logo : https://rog.asus.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=59202&d=1472495291

Is it linked to therma issue ?

 

Hi all,

I got a laptop which I am really happy with the low amount of bleed.

Unfortunately in the two or three I've had I noticed all have what I thought was a blown speaker but now I'm sure is the chassis rattling at certain frequencies. If I close the laptop while it's making the funny noise it goes away. It's been like this on several, so I assume it's the way it's manufactured, has anyone else had similar, and if so did they have any luck dampening it or similar?

Cheers

 

Hey guys, just received my GM501GS (1070), installed Windows from scratch and updated all drivers, everything works great BUT the sound.

It's just too muffled \ pretty quiet, also, almost on every video it sounds awful when t' and s' are pronounced, like speaker screeching, does anyone else have this issue?

I've tried using different version of RealTek HD Audio drivers but still having those sound issues, it just sounds bad..

Please help, if you have no issues can you please advise what drivers should I install (version etc.)

Thank you,
Daniel

 

I too did a fresh install of Win10 but I didn't have this problem. I used the drivers from Asus Zephyrus webpage.
"Audio_Realtek_CFL_W10_64_V6018403"

 

Is this with the inbuilt speakers, headphones, or both?

Also, do you have the likes of Sonic Studio and Sonic Radar installed?

 

Inbuilt speakers.
None of these programs are installed.

 

Hello there, you'll need to re-calibrate your battery.

On Windows, use this method: https://www.howtogeek.com/172271/ho...-battery-for-accurate-battery-life-estimates/

Why I recommended the recalibration: You can boot up without the charger, meaning that the battery is most likely okay, but its' not calibrated.
If indeed, your battery turns out to be a brick (and dead, it happens), you'll need to replace it.

 

Do you have the Asus control center installed?
I'd recommend installing the following at the very minimum:

1. Asus control center.
2. Asus Sonic Studio.
3. Mandatory: The hotkey driver.

PS: Is it just me, or is the Asus driver download page for this model blanked out?

 

Will do! Thank you!
It's blank for me as well

 

You can get a copy of all these drivers from here. I had downloaded them a while back to my one drive account.
All the drivers there should be up to date, including the BIOS.

 

Also not sure if it was my unit but had to Uninstall Sonic Studio as it caused the sound to go out. The only issue of sound was because of the application Sonic Studio causing it to go off and need to close the game or video application for it to come back. But this wasn't much of an issue after uninstalling Sonic Studio so didn't really worry. So haven't had any issues as you have mentioned. I might suggest not to install Sonic Studio but could have been my laptop.

Also Try to go here:
asus.com/uk/Laptops/ROG-Zephyrus-M-GM501/HelpDesk_Download/

Seems the US site is having issues loading. I expect it to be the same downloads.

 

Thanks for the mirror, but it also blanks out.

 

Weird then Asus is having issues with their site. As was able to view the drivers. Then at least you have downloaded them ahead of time from those that need it now.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

 

I finally opened it and discovered the battery cable was disconnected ...

It has been a pain in the as# to open it since the torx screw were all very used...

Do you have the exact references of each torx please ...there are 2 diff type and I want buy a kit to replace all of them...thanks a lot

Édit : it seems to be T3 and T1.

I can't find a dealer for that...do you have any recommendations ?

 

You can use such a kit: https://www.amazon.com/ORIA-Precision-Screwdriver-Professional-Electronics/dp/B01E16J6RQ

It has all the required bits.

See the assembly video:

Made by Bob Of All Trades. Truly excellent.

 

Thanks but I need the screws not the tools

 

Found my answer :

Here are the reference of the Torx screw :

2x M2*10L T5 and 8 x M2*7L T5

Also regarding my message above :

Dual channel works even if the amount is not similar :
I have 16gb + 4gb in 2666 and it works in dual channels

Tonight LIQUID METAL repast

 

Can someone confirm where the long torx screws are located? I watched a teardown video and in it he referred to them as phillips, but I'm sure the 2 long torx screws go just below the speakers, right?