Asus M50VM Montevina, NV 9600M GS Review

The optical drive will make a normal sound on boot, and some may describe it as "squealing". Hard drive, I don't know, see the M50 disassembly guide linked from the Info Booth, that should tell you.

 

I just heard about adding second batteries to laptops at the expense of removing the optical drive. I was wondering if anyone has considered this for the m50vm or if even possible.

 

I just bought this laptop. Really great, except for a few problems I'm noticing. First is the really low microphone volume. Is anyone else experiencing this or does my laptop have a problem? And second thing I've noticed is that it will make a beep whenever I close the lid or open it. Is there anyway to get rid of this sound? Thanks.

Edit: I found the reason for the sound. Apparently it was a Windows sound playing for when a device is connect and disconnected. I'm guessing that it thinks the monitor is disconnected when the lid gets closed. If anyone else want to know how to turn off that sound: Control Panel >> Sound >> Sound tab >> "Device Connect"/"Device Disconnect" >> Change the sound to none.

 

No it's not possible, in order to put a secondary battery module the optical drive bay has to be screwless like M6 and V1 series.

 

*cry* how often do prices drop for asus laptops...liiike how long did it take for the m50sv to drop price.

 

is it possible to change the background on the battery saving mode?

 

Okay, does anyone else's sound stutter when loading sites? My music occasionally stutters when I load up a site =/

 

Or you could try XP I'm definitely getting XP on my machine as soon as tomorrow. Been trying 3 different laptops with Vista and none of them managed to work well. Had to change them to XP after hours of failed updates and reboots and blue screens and re-activation pop-ups.

 

When the model is going to be end of life and they still have a lot in their warehouse.

Yes, go to power4gear xtreme>battery saving mode and choose no on battery saving desktop:

 

That shouldn't happen. My guess is that this is a buggy background app. I know ASUS Data Security Manager was causing some stuttering but that was long ago, that bug should've been fixed by now.

To test my guess, you could turn off all system tray applications, and then seeing if the stutter still happens. Then you can turn them on one by one, and see when the stutter reappears. Or you could go the other way around, turning off one by one.

 

I've also been experiencing sound sutter when loading websites...still haven't figured out what the problem is though. Anyone running XP experiencing slight keyboard lags?

BTW, what is this batter saving background thing I read about above?


dB.

 

I would also try disabling Flash in the web browser - it could be the problem since the latest versions use HW acceleration and might (?) be interfering wiht Aero thing causing FSB overload... This is just a guess, but probably worth trying

 

Hey M50VM users.

How long does it take for you to boot up Vista?

It seems to be taking an abnormally long time for me to boot up windows. Like over 3 minutes at the minimum.

Solutions?

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EDIT: Keyboard lag is still a constant annoyance to me. I called Asus support line and they said that the issue is being addresed and told me to call back later. If anyone has any updates about this issue in the meantime, please contact me...

ALSO. I'm also experiencing the hi-freq buzzing sound when I use earphones and when any of the two adjacent USB devices are plugged in and running. I need to use at least 3 USB ports (mouse, external drive, flash drive) so simply not plugging in any USB devices while using the headphones isn't really a solution. Is there a fix for this or am I stuck with this apparent hardware defect?

--

EDIT (again)

I have to say that I'm generally disappointed with my purchase of this laptop. The machine runs like a beast, but minor hardware issues seem to plague this laptop model.

I'm trying to lurk around the internet for more discussion/information about this laptop but wow are they ever hard to find. If anyone can link me to any other sources of information for the M50VM series, other than NBR/Asus site, it would be helpful.

 

are you using that little mouse that came with the laptop? try using a different mouse and see if the noise goes away.

 

I'm currently evaluating the M50VM for review. I have found that its speakers are less than steller; in fact I think they are extremely tinny. Anyone else agree, or is there something I am not doing? I have all audio settings at default, in WMP and the Realtek control panel. All equalizers are off and I have tried many different music tracks.

Other than that, I am enjoying the unit. ASUS did a nice job with this laptop.

 

The spekears are supposedly the same in the G50V but just covered with a mesh and not exposed. They sound great to me. Better than any laptop speakers I have heard in a 15" but they do not go as loud as I would like. Its very source dependent tho. One MP3 or movie may be more than loud and the next is hard to hear at max volume.

I have downloaded a few program plug ins that amplify sound for winamp and windows media player so I can boost volume if needed but have not tried them yet.

 

Weng, my boot to vista is very quick, probably like 30 seconds at most.

Chaz, these speakers sound great actually.. they're a lot better than others I've heard. Pretty good speakers besides the lack of bass.

 

I'll have to second that. This laptop has the best speakers I've ever heard by far.

 

All my MP3s are 320kbps normalized to 88db.

Thanks for the input.

Even compared to a Dell Latitude D810 and my old Sager NP5320, these sound subpar though. I'm going to go check through the settings again.

EDIT: All settings are at default, and I experimented with equalizers with no improvements. At any rate, thanks again for the input.

Edit #2: Even after using many different MP3s, I'm not impressed with these speakers. Decent, but nothing stand-out. Especially compared to Toshiba's and HP's offerings in this price range.
Given the Altec Lansing badge, I expected more . . . if they didn't have the badge, I would have said they were average. I suppose the brand name got my hopes up a little too high. Nobody buys a notebook for speakers though rolleyes , so it won't be a major con in the review.

 

guys im still yet to test gears for my bro in here.. NFS PS install essed up... i tried to update it to 1.1 but it failed on vista

anyways...

i went into the bios and raised the speaker volume from 4 to 8(the max) and its playing a little louder now than before.

Ok, i have one request... can somebody give me a link to the fix(es) for the keyboard lag? is there any fix at all?

BTW i ran NFS PS on full everything.. 8X AA and it ran without lag... this lapy is such a beast!!!!! but sadly the keyboard lag is kicking in.

im gonna do EBE/flamenco vista optimizer guide tonight on im. IM FEDUP of ASUS secure login manager lol

 

the volume setting in the BIOS is supposedly for the Asus logo and the sound it makes when you turn the computer on.

 

the numeric keypad comes with pg up and pg down, they work, when in the num lk is off, without playing games, when i play a game that needs the up n down pgs, it doesnt work, can anyone help? I really need help with this, can anyone give advice?

 

I was expecting the speakers to be great and very loud but they are extremely soft, in fact sometimes i could barely hear things out of them, but i always use headphones so it does not bother me and the headphone jack does not have any problems, it is VERY loud, I actually wonder if it is a bios/driver problem that can get fixed.

if you need any input on the review let me know

 

ohh... i did notice that.. but it got a lil louder too.. or is it just me

lol

but we cant do anything about the keyboard lag yet?

BTW EBE... excellent job with the vista fix post!!! im enjoying it...

 

Keyboard lag, there are some possible solutions posted by EmporiumBoutique, check the Info Booth for a link under "Miscellaneous".

As to the 3-min Vista bootup time, something is not right... I'm not sure who posted that, but he could try cleaning up the bloatware and doing the optimizations in my Vista guide. And if that doesn't work, there's always XP :roll:

 

man i dont know whats up now. i did your guide and i think i messed up (my control panel showed unknown icon and sidebar had no date on calender) so i did a restore, and now everything is ok, except i have no AV and it seems that i got a virus because anytime i try to download a file from FireFox or IE, as it completes, it disappears and searching cant find anything i dont know whats going on.

I think i got my excuse to put in Vista Ultimate 64bit, so, another quick question for you guys, does this lappy have all compatible drivers for vista on the CD?

And how do i go about it?
Just stick in the vista ult CD in this Windows and run it?
I want to reformat my old partition, so the best thing is to install this 64bit vista on a new one?

Thanks so far for the help EBE

EDIT: Well guys dont worry, i just installed it in like 15min :O it twas really fast but the drivers still installing an hour now. its almost done. Everything is working great! 4GB RAM!! lol and SP1 is downloading at the moment... I didnt realize it would have been sooo simple

 

Hey man i just have that question again, i really want 4GB of RAM to be read by an OC, as you just explained about the 64 bit Vista, was it really ez to install? and also i herd on this forum that 64 bit Vista may give you problems with hardware:/ i am looking forward to buy this laptop in 1 week or so and please pot some reviews about it. Anything that you dislike about it is a + for me. THX

Please tell me as well should i install XP and are all drivers found for it as well for wireless and bluetooth as KEN said.

 

TO EVERYONE WITH THE M50VM-B1: Say you're sitting a foot away from the laptop. Just browsing the web, chatting etc not heavy use, do you hear anything? I can hear my hard drive (it's not loud... but I can hear it) and I want to know if this is normal or not. Under heavy load, the fan is louder than the hard drive... just under normal use I can hear the hard drive more. I think it kind of sounds like wind, but it is the hard drive. If I move really close I can hear the deep (very low-pitched) humming too.

Once again, IS THIS NORMAL? Or is your laptop completely silent?!
Thanks in advance.

 

I have a M50vm-b1. Had it for about a week. I can only hear the hard drive booting up during the bios stage when turning on the comp.

WHAT I WANT TO ASK YOU GUYS IS THIS.....

I read somewhere that there is a defect on the nvidia mobile cards of G84, 86,92,94 cards.... and im running speedfan on my lappy and the 9600 gs is idle at around 50*C.... while processor is 34/32*C...

I want to know if other VM-B1 owners are experiencing this as well....

 

btw.. during operation, its basically silent.

only problem i shave other than the nvidia card's temp is the dvd-drive... when i eject it , there is give when i slightly tilt it up/down... in that sense, its not 100% sturdy.

 

as for 64-bit install....................ITS EASY AS PIE!!!! and this laptop has awesome hardware that makes it finish in ~30mins. i was scared at first when installing it but seeing the driver disk says "supports 32/64-bit" i went with it....
basically install 64bit, and run the driver disk and it automatically picks the 64-bit drivers for you to install and you can pick the ones you want and don't........ cough**** like norton...

AND EVERYTHING WORKS!!! only thing you need to worry about is the driver for printers... but the microsoft compatibility site solves that problem easily.

 

as for boot up time....

its quite fast even after installing all the software i need...
ie) takes about 1min for the entire process.

gotta love the T9400 and 4gigs of 800mhz ram

 

Ok but do you have HITACHI or WDC drive? ExcaliburPC's review has a Hitachi.

I have a WDC drive, and I can hear it... still wondering if anyone else has comments. It's not loud per say, but I want to know if it is not normal to hear it (constant sound, but not a low hum of the spinning).

 

///M P0W3R, you have a M series BMW by chance? lol am jus kidding bro.

Well i wont go into details as how i obtained the install dvd, but its quite easy what i did...

1) Got fedup of a problem in my vista (i was downloading files and it wasnt showing up) so i said, let me pop in the DVD.

2) Windows said it was not possible to run it (Duhh! its 32bit trying to run 64bit.. silly me!)

3) Rebooted the system, went into the bios and made it boot from the DVD.

4) System picked up Vista install DVD, went on to ask various stuff (as a windows vista install would normally do.) if you want to see some screen shots, stallen has in his review here i of course didnt follow his review (being stubborn and harden! )

5) System booted up in no time. i was actually scared because there was a thunderstorm while i was doing it!

6) Slipped in M50VM drivers CD. Installed all drivers and stuff, except ASUS live update and Norton.

7) Waited about hour....

8) Returned seeing my system as brand new with 64bit!!! It was restarting while it installed all the drivers as this is a normal occurrance.

9) Went out and put SP1 to install on my desktop system, i returned a while ago and installed SP1 (this took longer than the actual vista install i believe!)

10) The tinkering begins! I am going to test all my hardware devices now.

The only thing i am not seeing now is my networks icon in the system tray dont know where that went! but thats ok.

BTW about XP, i wanted to do this but, i need to start using vista, so sorry, but i believe all the drivers are posted in the front page of this review for XP. or check here:
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M50Vm

Just check the INF file in notepad. But i wouldnt doubt if you check the Driver's CD that those INF should show up as xp drivers too. (im just guessing dont quote me on that )

taigech, bro that aint sound good, when EBE hears this i know he will tell you what he said before... follow his guide for tips and tricks, because when i have my lappy outside, in a quiet room at 32C i hear little or no noise.

Maybe those 320GB are seemingly faulty... :O that sucks

I know my Optical drive makes a loudddd hmmmm noise when its loading... similar to what was discussed before but after a while (1min) it goes, also if you press down a lil by the region near the cd drive the noise goes

enochc17 bro, yuh hit d nail HARD on its head man! you read my mind!!

BTW

dont worry about that those temps are ok, a guy went up to 69C in a hot room with his GPU. I hit about 61-64C under load and about 40C in a a/c cool room. Dont worry about those defective GPUs, jus pray it aint yours

 

I'm getting this baby tmrw! little worried about all the problems everyone is having..hope you guys fix them so i can read about it ><.

 

Thank you for your quick reply WICKEDESTMAN. I appreciate it! BTW i love the M series BMW and hope to get one l8er on
Just couple of questions
- how would u consider that your GPU is defective when buying this lappy
- is the 320GB hard going to be a problem, does it run loud?
- please respond after you finish all your tests about hardware, and their drivers, do all work? including bluetooth etc, and how did you make your network icon appear
- please give me a good describtion of how this machine is and please tell me if something is not that good, i heard bout keyboard laggs..and so on. Give me details on everything you find weird. THX

 

Hello Pal, I just managed to work on my new computer yesterday, here is my initial review.

The computer is outstanding. I had a DELL 6400 with dedicated graphics and a nice processor and it doesn't even get close. The M50Vm runs like a champ and handles any game you throw at it. I tried World in Conflict and Mass Effect. Both look great and perform nicely, with slight slowdown when having nuclear warheads destroy whole cities and things like that. Mass Effect looks really nice though, very detailed, just like having a portable 360, . I got Windows XP and installed all the drivers suggested on the 1st post.

The sound seems a little low on the included speakers, but on headphones or external speakers is great.

The screen resolution is good at 1440 x 900, but I prefer 1680 x 1050. Its glossy and looks really nice and bright. There is some light leakage a the bottom.

You have lots of hard drive, mine came with 2 partitions of 150 Gb each, one for OS and one for Files. Now to the noise, when using the computer under normal work, like e-mail, word processing, etc. It doesn´t even hiss. Now when you play a game, the fan on the left side of the computer is noticeable but nothing major. So you know when heavy duty things are being processed. The sound comes from the Nvidia card fan I believe and the Hard drive doesn't make squeaky noises or anything weird. Maybe I should get my ear near the vent to check if it makes a sound, but overall, not a sound at all.

I got the fingerprint reader activated and works great to log in. Won't try the camera recognition, but works nicely too.

The keyboard is good and feels sturdy (No Lag). There is a slight learning curve because of the full numerical pad, but in no time you will be working with it. The touchpad look really cool with those backlight buttons and is very responsive.

Wifi networks are recognized immediately and with an N network, I get 300mbps data transfer rate. Really good. Bluetooth is present but I don't use it that much.

The ports are very well distributed and there are plenty of USB. Haven't tried the Firewire, e-sata, HDMI, VGA, ethernet, modem.

The laptop is great for any purpose, casual gaming, online gaming, watching movies, downloading stuff, graphics applications. The Video Card is really nice and performs great, this was my first priority to go for it.

Good luck and special thanks to Ken and GentechPC for helping me get the coolest laptop ever. Will post any difficulties I may find later, but overall, 10/10 laptop. Great quality and looks gorgeous, very pro.

 

i got a WDC... and in an absolutely silent setting i can hear a very quiet humm... i guess this is normal... normally im not close to my hard drives when using a desktop and now its right under my right hand....

 

thanks for your confirmation.

 

We just purchased the B1 from newegg $1399 a great deal.

I do have a question for Ken. The XP that you have listed with the driver information to download off the disc and those you need to download off the web, is this XP 32 bit or 64 bit.

Obviously for gaming XP is better....however City of Heroes seems to work with Vista a bit better than it had.

 

Hahaha same here bro... its in my dream as well!

1) I think you would notice glitches. Artifacts and other problems as well as core temps. I dont know for a fact, as my core is fine. but i know on a desktop pc, what i listed in the beginning are the usual signs of a faulty gpu. the big guys of NBR should be able to tell you exactly what to expect, but i dont think you should be worried man

2) I have the X1 version.. it comes with a 250GB HDD. I dont know anything about the 320GB HDD sorry about that bro.

3) Everything seems to work sweet! BTW dreamscapes.. its the most sweetest app for vista ultimate!

wrt to the network icon, i didnt bother. Its something minor. Im on my wireless connection right now and its working fine.

4) Lol i will try my best..
Gentech has by far THE best review on the 1st page.

My personal views as follows:
I got the lappy sunday last. It took a while to boot up at first attempt because of course windows had to go thru its routine checks, etc. You have to get accustomed to the keyboard, this is my first lappy. i can say i am a bit accustomed now to it. Also the touchpad with the MODE button is a bit to get accustomed to.
Everything loads up in a short time. I use finger print login as well. I was amazed at the performance of this baby and how quite and cool she runs. The speakers at first were a bit soft but the quality is SUPERB! The best i have heard on laptops. The LCD quality is good, not THE best but certainly great. Wireless is excellent and expressgate is an excellent addon. I havent tried out the usb + headphones yet.
The Optical drive, is.. as a normal optical drive lol no probs.
The only problem i had was a bit of the keyboard lag. Suprising i got NO probs while writing this up and dreamscapes is running and im in my hott room!
I got a lag a couple of times, i.e., letters were typed but didnt appear. maybe 64bit OS fixed this.

The only sad thing is that a couple of the programs i use in 32bit XP dont work well under vista 64bit

but besides this all is well! I would recommend this buy. For the price we are paying, this is more than value for $$$

anything else bro?

BTW, i only installed test drive unltd so far and im getting a problem, the car wont move in free ride

i will install COD4 and GRID later NFS PS aint worth it IMHO

 

As to whether the XP drivers on the main post are for XP32 or 64, I'm pretty sure it's 32. (say, 98% sure )

 

hey, does anyone know if we can overclock this laptop? there doesn't seem to be any options in the BIOS.

 

Why do you want to overclock?

 

I would say to improve the performance even further ... (myself, I never overclock laptops, in fact I tend to underclock them)

Hey wickedestman, thanks a lot for the input. Just got a call from CC (local distributor), they delayed it by another week so won't get my hands on this baby till Sept 3. Oh well, I'm now used to waiting

AFAIK there should be an option in the network properties that says something like "Hide the icon when connected". I know XP has it for sure, so if you browse around the network properties, might be able to find it. In any case I don't even see the reason to have an extra icon all the time, taking up the system tray space

 

WICKEDESTMAN. thx for your comments, now that i have more of an impression to this lappy im more confident of getting this machine. I was really chosing between this one or buy a DELL XPS with 8600 GT 256MB; would this compare to 9600?. Also dell offer Windows XP PRO wich when i read, smile appears on my face. I really am not that satisfied that asus put 32bit VISTA!@! on this lappy. but anyway i have to start using it too, hope there wont b problems with programs as people say some dont really work..

- couple of questions bro

1. If i work and do homework on this lappy with Vista anything from media to presentation, its not going to be a problem to work it in my school's XP right?

2. Im buying this laptop from eBAY from a great salesman rated 99.6% sold tons of items. Is this a good idea as in Canada prices are boosted up as usual and i'll get a tax too. so eBay price is 1260 and 70 bucks for shipping which i find perfect. The B -1 is at a price of 1399 and shipping not specified but you never know CANADA borders could put a 100 bucks over....for nothing. But i dont think i'll be spending extra 150-200 for the B1

3. Why is there keyboard lagg??Sounds very dissapointing to me... did u fix that? or what do u mean 64 bit fixes it? did you have such problems on 32bit? and man is there point of installing the 64 bit Vista if you dont want the extra 800 MB of RAM.. WHAT else does 64bit imrpoves for hardware?

 

oh shucks, dont worry. Cant you order it from newegg?

wrt to the network icon, i honestly keep forgetting to check that.. thanks for that reminder though. I was actually thinking back and remembered that option but i dont mind i got a sidebar gadget to help out lol

BTW i cant seem to find the gears CD

And, i installed COD4, it runs on full settings everything normal and full with 4X AA and NO lags at all.. really great. and this is with vista aero and my loaded sidebar running in the background.

The dell xps' are nice and have a great legacy behind them of having great value and build quality (IMHO) but if you want bang for buck, ASUS laptops win! i believe the 9600M GS is better than the 8600M GT. I dont have the links for another website which may have the graphs to back that up. ut you shouldnt get much probs... then again you can always install XP 32bit

1) Most likely you will be using office to do such and you can use your lappy as the source or save it as a *.pps and just copy it to a flash drive and it will work on an XP platform. it doesnt reaaly depend on the the OS but the office.

2) I dont trust eBay, but i dont have much experience from buyimg there either.. make another topic bro and ask about any other users buying off ebay? You will get a better perspective of your decision. One thing is dont rush bro take your time and sift thru. You can use newegg at all?

3) I havent had lag since a while now but i bet ASUS will release a fix at a point.. And honestly no... i just needed to fix a problem i had and im so lame with vista i got fedup!

 

I bought the M50Vm a couple days and installed DOD:Source and Red Orchesta. After playing for 5/10 minutes I have problems with the keyboard. Every time a press a key either beep (DOD:source) or just keep performing one action (only jump in Red Orchesta).
All other thing works perfect and I love this notebook. Excellent performance.
Any answer guys?

 

Yeah, the thing is, CPUs today are so fast that many people almost never max out their CPU's at stock frequencies... so they don't really need overclocking. That's why I ask.

 

yeah. my stuttering went away after i rebooted but now it's back again..