Asus M50VM Montevina, NV 9600M GS Review

i think im gonna re-install my os AGAIN

things playing up...

 

Is this how I can stop the sound mine makes when I start it up? I use mine for class and cannot figure out how to make it totally silent, even with headphones plugged in it still makes that little jingle when i start it up at the ASUS screen.

 

guys..... anyone know know how make the webcam 1.3 recording faster???

its very laggy... i can't used it to record my guitar play for YouTube.

Help help

 

Either by turning that volume down to 0, or simply "disable POST sound" in the BIOS, an option near the volume option. Take care, in some notebooks, there is a bug where disabling POST sound also kills sound later on in Windows, in which case it's better to use the volume setting.

 

Thank you..........

 

just did it over... its blazing fast. updating os now.

back to my legit copy of windows. the other one, ultimate was legit also. but it will be missed.

just have to shrink my os partition etc.

WRT to the volume in the bios, i notice if it was on 5, my music sounded softer on 100 volume than when it was on 8.

in this model, my post sound is disabled, but the vista load sound still sounds, so no probs.

i will load some games and apps later... maybe friday... i need rest!

 

hello,

i need help to install windows xp x64 on my notebook.
i have the asus M50-SV.

i had tried but the acpi driver didn't work.

Can anyone help me with the drivers for xp x64.


Thanks and best regards.

 

@wicked

Does the sound sorta sound "noisy" when WRT is at 8, while volume is @ 100?

 

As a general rule, XP64 seems to have poor driver support. Maybe you should consider either XP 32 (if you really want XP) or else Vista 64.

 

did u press the display mode button on the top of the notebook? (the one next to the express gate button)

 

Isn't it the Fn+A ambient light sensor toggle that you (NeoOsiris) pressed?

 

Our 9600m GS is a 128 bit graphic card right?

I read somewhere in our forum that it is useless to have more than 256 MB of this card because the limitation of 128 bit.

Can someone please help me to find any article about this? my 9600m GS has 1 GB.

 

Isn't that actually pretty common knowledge with any dedicated graphics?

The 1GB memory is overkill, but it looks good on a spec sheet.

 

Hehe sorry consider me a nooby.

Can someone please links to any official document? or specifically topic discussing about this?

How is everyone Windows Experience Index?

i score 4?? but in our first post, it show that the m50 is scored 5?

here is my spec.
M50VM-B1:
MSRP: $1449
15.4" 1440X900 WXGA+
Chipset: Intel PM45 Montevina Mobile Platform
Southbridge: ICH9-M SATA Controller
GPU: GeForce 9600M GS 1GB VRAM DDR2
CPU T9400 2.53 Ghz 6MB 1066 FSB
4GB DDR2 800MHz
500GB 5400RPM SATA
Express Gate Technology
Aheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter
DVDRW Super Multi
1.3MB Swivel webcam
Fingerprint Scanner

 

Mine scored 5 too.. What made the rating 4? The rating is usually defined by the lowest rating your system has.

So, what criteria of your unit registers a score of 4?

 

mine scored 5 as well, there should be no reason why yours shouldnt either. hmm, try updating your score because maybe it didnt detect new hardware; thats what happened with me.

 

I scored 4 for the graphic: performance with windows Aero.
Probably the driver problem?
What driver do you used to score 5?

 

GPU scored 4? Thats weird ..

Well, as long as you dont see a decrease in performance in games or something, I guess its still ok.

And the drivers Im using are stock ones.

 

Hey guys, I've noticed something about my screen and I don't know if its a common thing but, when i close the screen, I notice that the right and left upper corners' rubber supports dont actually make contact with the palmrest. So, since it seems that only the center camera part rests on it I'm wondering if my screen is warped or something. Also, when i carry the laptop closed, I can feel the screen wobbling slightly because it's not completely supported. Any ideas/suggestions?

 

Hmm.. try thickening the rubber supports? Like, you can maybe use a double sided tape, but not remove the paper of the other part so it wont stick.

What do you mean by screen wobbling btw? Like, you can hear it? @_@

 

I can feel it wobble, kind of like when a chair has a uneven leg so it kinda rocks back and forth. Its not a big deal, i mean it doesnt affect the display quality at all, but it is a little annoying. And yes, i can hear it too.

 

Ohh. Thats annoying. Especially the fact that you can hear it

Though, you're welcome to try my suggestion if you want. That might fill the gap between the rubber thingies on the lid and the palm rest.

 

Just a heads up for people, lately I've been trying to game on my university's wireless network (battle.net) and it would spike a lot. Very confusing because the connection was good, so I decided to update the Atheros 928x card's drivers and then it worked perfectly!

They're pretty scarce on the web, and I ended up finding them at laptopvideo2go.
Vista: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14833
2000,XP: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14858

 

which driver are you using, i dont really know which to pick
! thanks!

 

Hey I recently picked up an Asus M50VN. I reaslise this is the VM thread, but there isn't a VN one and it seemed silly to start a new one.

I've found that my fan is quite loud, I've read that most people find it quiet, any idea what could be causing this?

 

I downloaded the nVIDIA ForceWare X 180.44 for Windows Vista 32bit

from here: h##p://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21677

but i got error "driver not compatible".

Why? i thought it is a laptop driver?

 

@taigech
Which one did you use? I might try updating mine, though Im not really experiencing any problems with mine as of the moment.

@Orga
Did you follow instructions on how to install it? If so, then I dont really have an idea on what's wrong with that

 

You forgot to use the modded inf... read theFAQs on the Lv2go website.

 

I'm using Vista, so I updated my drivers to v7.6.1.122

Yeah I never really had problems either, but this driver fixed the spiking on bnet so I was happy. Also, I had some problems with connecting to the secure university network (sometimes it would just continuously asking for me to enter the info) but I haven't seen that so far.

 

Hi guys; first post here.

Just installed all the drivers GenTechPC listed out,(THANKS A MILLION) but along side the "audio device on the high definition audio bus" having a question mark, i also have the ethernet controller, an unknown device and my webcam listed with question marks.

Does anyone else have the problem?

It is an m50vm-a1 btw.

thanks again Gentech!

 

yes, you were right.

Hemm, what is the best driver for our card?
My index Score is 4.8 after installed the latest driver from Lv2go

 

Demonsblood,

After an exhausting research, I believe that you are the only M50VM owner who has successfully overclocked the NV 9600M GS. Over 5600 3dmarks, that is quite a lot!

I followed your instructions and installed the Forceware 178.13. However, according to the GPU-Z, Nvidia System Monitor and 3DMark, overclocking with Ntune doesn’t raise the clockspeeds or the performance, not even for a moment.

The only reason that I can think of is that my BIOS (especially the VGA BIOS) doesn’t allow me to overclock.

Could you possibly check if your system differs from these versions?
(AMI)BIOS version: 206
VGA BIOS version: 62.94.1F.00.21.N21M50.001
EC BIOS version: 2000160001

I know that checking all this takes a while so I would really appreciate your help.

Thank you!

 

Does installing windows xp violate the warranty in any way? I only ask because the website i bought mine from specifically states that xp is not compatible.

 

Installing XP won't void your warranty, but don't expect ASUS to help if you're having problems (software, driver compatibility, etc.) because of it.

 

Is there is anyone else successfully overclock their 9600mGS?

Anyone playing NFS:undercover on M50? care to share the performance of M50?

 

So, my baby likes the idea of testing the spill warranty of the Notebook. Me, being the sort that hates to deal with shipping computers around, etc., have tried to deal with the problem by letting the water drain, and dealing with the keyboard issues that ensued. One of the problems was a stuck arrow key. If anyone has ever had this condition, it makes using a computer almost impossible. So, I tried to take the keys off and clean. However, one particular key didn't go back on square. It is hard to describe exactly what happened, as I don't fully understand the mechanisms on this keyboard, but basically, it works, but will flop around, depending on how it is hit. It seems to have something to do with the little plastic pieces under the key, but I can't quite tell what is wrong.

Anyone know how to deal with a problem like this? Can Asus just send me a new key assembly? Or will I need a whole new keyboard? Thanks.

 

+1 ..Im planning to buy that game as well...anybody can share the performance on the M50?

 

Had anyone solved the problem with the IR driver and Audio driver for XP ?

Sorry , just couldn't look throught all the pages

Any other updates for the XP drivers ?

Thanks

 

^^^ Yes, I believe a working IR driver has been posted; not sure that for exactly this computer, but probably other ASUS notebooks use the same IR part, so the driver has a good chance to work.

I do not know where it was posted now, you could search for it...

There are some small tabs under the key that should pop in. They may simply have not popped in; or some may be broken. In the former case it would need to be pushed in completely.

In the later case, you need to get a new keyboard (noone will sell just they key...) but full keyboards are around 20 USD on the ASUS Estore.

 

alright, so i checked my VGA bios using EVEREST and it shows that our VGA bios is the same. Also, i now upgraded to the 180.44 custom drivers on laptopvideo2go...whether I got a performance boost from that....i do not know. I am actually surprised that no one got it working :S and also with the new ntune version the clocks that i set loads by itself. so basically it not runs better than the 9650gt w ddr2 on the m50vn and n50vn models! I am very happy.

BUT the thin plastic on top of the touchpad is warped and now has a permanent ripple in it....I want to send it in for repairs but at the moment I am in school and much of my work requires my notebook..so...dilemma!

 

Thanks for the info, Demonsblood. Now I can stop worrying about my bios version.

I have also noticed the problem you mentioned about the touchpad. The M50vm seems to generate an air bubble under the touchpad film, which has probably something to do with the laptop temperatures.

However, what distracts me far more are the horrible creacking sounds that the lid emits! The whole webcam+lid structure seems to suffer from serious manufacturing flaws:

-The black bezel around the silvery webcam bezel creaks VERY LOUDLY! It feels, as if the whole webcam could break apart from the lid when I lift it. The creacks are actually so loud that it feels embarrasing to open the lid in a quiet class room.
-The silvery bezel that features the "1.3M pixels" text bends strongly when I turn the webcam.
-The rolling webcam feels very loose on the right side and strudy on the left side

There are also some smaller problems according to the laptop's construction:

-The plastic caps on the lid's hinges are not fully attached to the laptop's body. This results in annoying creaks when the lid is touched.
-The touchpad's mouse buttons are far from homogeneous. The left one feels strudy but the right one emits dull and creaky sounds.

So, these are the problems that are left after fixing the keyboard flex and dvd resonance issues.
It's a pity this laptop has such weaknesses in construction. The M50vm is otherwise a fairly nice product.

 

I think you may have a defective laptop because mine doesn't have any of those problems except for the hinge caps squeaking a little, but only when i wiggle them. The webcam area seems very well built to me.

 

The webcam construction is fine for me, but the plastic beside it does creak sometimes if I pinch it.

 

Mine's working perfectly. I've been overclocking quite a bit. Not to the levels you've been (I haven't even attempted that), but around 575 clock / 470 mem and it's pretty good.

I'm still using 178.13 though, haven't tried beyond that.

I'll be upgrading to Vista 64bit once exams are over and I'll see if I can still pull out the same performance using the 64bit drivers.

 

Since other people do not have these issues (or at least not to this extent), can't you return the notebook as a "lemon" and get a replacement? Or just send it to ASUS (depending on your location this may or may not be a good idea...)

 

I'm glad this subject recieved so many replies. Now I have a better perspective into the matter.

I know I'm overly sensitive to these kind of issues so maybe it's just me.
Furthermore, as long as nothing is actually broken they wouldn't take those issues seriously at ASUS.
Therefore, I almost hope that the lid would break completely.

However, nothing has happened so I have started to disassemble the screen bezel in order to fix the creaking. I guess a little bit of glue here and there could make it better. Unfortunately, I won't be able to disassemble it again after doing that. So, the first try has to be successful or I'm going to be in trouble.

 

Rather than gluing stuff inside the notebook, which would most likely void the warranty, I suggest you send it in for repairs. Or, if you can live with the problems, live with them.

 

does anyone know where i can get the lifeframe utility for XP? i tried using the vista 32 one but that unfortunately did not work.

 

has anyone used the hdmi out to connect to a hdtv? i was wondering if you get audio as well as video (im planning to get a 1080p hdtv as a monitor for this baby.)

 

I played NFS undercover. i set all the graphic to maximum including resolution.

But why in earth its still look ugly? not sharp and too bright.