Asus N50 Owners/Buyers Thread

The method that I used to find the maximum OC that my laptop supported is this:

Slide the core speed slider up in increments of 50, play crysis for 10 minutes. If it's stable/doesn't artifact or overheat, I turn it up another 50, test again, etc.

Once I go over the limit, I turn it down 50MHz, and from there go up in increments of 5, test for 10 minutes, repeat. That way I find out the max for the core.

Then, I did the same exact thing for the memory (don't do both core and memory at the same time)

Once I found the maximum speeds for both, I OCed both. Stress test for 10 minutes. If it works, I play Crysis for 2 hours straight. If it's too much, I turned each down by 5MHz, until I find a happy medium that stays stable with no overheating, glitches, or artifacting for the duration of the two hours.

The shaders are linked to the Core. If you overclock the Core, the shaders automatically go up in proportion with how much the Core goes up. For example, if the Core is overclocked 15%, the shaders are also overclocked 15%. I haven't found a way to individually overclock the shaders.

I've always found that Dox's modded drivers give the best performance, even if the overclocking potential stays the or lowers. Here's a link to the newest ones:

http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24004


Lucky3killer: Yes, the N50 will support the RC of windows 7. Use the newest drivers from the Asus website. Do NOT use the CD.

 

I can't find Windows 7 from ASUS driver website for N50Vn.

 

That's because Win 7 is not yet officially released. Just download the newest Vista drivers - they should all work with a few exceptions for some Asus utilities.

 

I found terrible bugs from video card driver that cause Windows 7 to crash so frequently and have to hard reset the notebook, it did happened at 3 time then I decided to uninstall the video card driver and it worked so ok.

There's no video card driver that can utilize the video card, do you have any idea to fix the bugs to stop the crash.

I use video card driver from Nvidia website and driver is Windows 7 64 bit since I use Windows 7 64 bit.

Windows 7 cannot detect bluetooth and I was unable to install driver for bluetooth.

Additional, this bug is occurred when change to Aero theme that cause Windows 7 to crash.

 

Quick question: Which program do you guys use to monitor the temperature of the GPU / CPU? So far all the programs I have tried did not display the temperature. I would like to see how hot it gets after some hours of hardcore gaming.

 

What did you try? Everest/RivaTuner/HWMonitor/GPUZ/CPUZ are some options that come to mind.

 

GPUZ and CPUZ seem to work, thank you.

 

Lucky, use this driver:

http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24004


virtuoosi, I use GPUz and RealTemp to monitor the temperatures.

 

some crappily taken pics of the n50 with my new digital camera

 

So i finally got a replacement n50 c2s and this one is much better.

my palm rest don't crack

so far no dead pixel,and no crackling on the speakers.

though THOUGH

i thought it was keyboard lag or maybe it is, but i am using the generic microsoft drivers.

the space bar doesn't seem to be registring all the hits..

typing is fine.. BUT BUT has anyone had an issue where the space bar registeres and doesn't register keystrokes?

I find the issue is more present between the N and M key,i called asus and they are sending me a new keyboard but has anyone had this issue?

 

The cracking palm rest is fairly easy to fix. I found out that the problem is in the rubber thing that keeps the laptop "afloat". Theres one in each corner. Just replace the one that cracks with something similar. Insert the replacement 0,5 - 1 centimeters away from the old one, and it wont crack. You might have to search a bit to find the right spot for the rubber, but it will work in the end.

Someone had the same problem with spacebar earlier in this thread. He/she had to remove the spacebar button with a screwdriver, and install it back to its place correctly. The button was not touching the smaller "key" which registers the keystrokes. But if Asus already sent you a new keyboard, you might aswell install it first and then fix the old one and you will have two working keyboards. Unless you have to send the old one back.

 

I tried but won't solve any issue.

The bugs occurred when I use Aero theme in Windows 7 and it crash for few minutes, I tried different drivers and none of them can fix it, also bugs is called blue screen or something.

What kind of bit that you use for Windows 7? 32 or 64?

Have you use Aero theme?

 

Anyone knows what is the safe temp for N50's GPU ? (9650m GT), because I plan to overclock it once I get Zallman coller
Right now I get 71 Celsius in stress without OC

 

I find anything up to 75 degrees Celsius to be safe.

BTW, Vista Service Pack 2 is out. If you upgrade, make sure you download the new ATK/OSD drivers, otherwise the touch sensitive strip will die.

 

I usualy get 70c but if I prop it up with a dvd case It drops to around 64c


Edit:

Here's a question I have...Will replacing the Hard drive with a bigger one void the warranty??

 

No it will not void the warranty if you replace your hard drive.

your allowed to, the only void warranty sticker i saw was inside the notebook in the internals


On a good note.

I received a replacement keyboard from asus.

and my spacebar fully works now!

also i experience no keyboard lag with the keyboard and all the factory preset drivers which i am happy for!

 

Thank you Wooldoor

I plan to get Zallman and reach 6000 3dmarks in 3dmark06 I already undervolted my T5800 to 1.1000v and temp went down to 58 Celsius in stress witch is very cool

As for the SP2 I don't download it right now, seems to be slowing the system and doesn't add that much really, at least nothing very useful what would persuade me to install it

 

About the temperatures:

I just came home from a LAN party, where I played three days straight with my N50Vn. I had RealTemp on all the time and I was monitoring the temperatures. I wasnt running anything very demanding; World of Warcraft (most of the time two clients at the same time).

I never saw the GPU going even close to 70 celcius, the temperature was moving around 50 to 60 celcius and the processor was running at 40 to 45 celcius.

I did not run into any problems with my laptop, everything ran smoothly from the very beginning to the end. I am now even more pleased with this laptop.

I know WoW isnt so very demanding, but I guess this was sort of a long-run test.

 

I have the same model myself and my 9650m also never gets above 60-65 Celsius, it only sometimes reaches 72 Celsius with demanding games like Dead Space on ultra settings or Crysis

This is why I think we have a lot of temp space for OC there

 

im going to try gta 4 again since the laptop has better drivers for video and they made some graphics changes with the latest patch...ill let you guys know now it turns out.....


Edit:

I can get a decent 30-35fps when you turn the shadows off and everything else on high

 

Is anyone using Nvidia 185.85 drivers either from Nvidia or the Dox modified drivers.

I have instant screen corruption and hard crashing constantly, I had to go back to previous version. Is anyone using the latest without problems?

Vista x64 perhaps?

 

Using Dox's 182.46 drivers right now. Working well.

 

Yeah i have not had a problem with drivers before Nvidia drivers 185.85. (RivaTuner also no longer works with 185.85) So 182.46 should be all okay.

The first Nvidia OGL3 drivers are 185.xx, So i need 185.85 or better for OGL3 development. But i get instant crashing and screen pixel corruption, with either Nvidia or Dox 185 drivers. Hoping Nvidia will have some fix or new version sooner rather than later....

Cheers!

 

I'm using the official 185.85 drivers right now on Windows 7 64-bit with no issues. Maybe there's a difference between their Win7 release and their Vista release?

 

I am using 185.85 with Vista 32-bit SP2. I played CoD4 and Company of Heroes and did not have any issues.

I am still chasing down the jumping cursor. Ever since i resolved the keyboard lag issue by removing the driver I am occasionally running into random jumps of the cursor so that it focuses on different windows.

 

I'm using Nvidias 185.85 WHQL ones as well, but I'm waiting for they're Asus version, should be anytime on it's driver site now

 

Thanks for all replies, I might have to do a clean Vista install.... I was running beta development desktop drivers, so it maybe some kind of conflict.. I will perhaps think of running W7RC instead.... Cheers!

 

How is the cooling of this laptop....I am going to get it but how long does it last under games like timberium war or css or fallout3???

 

The cooling part has been discussed in this thread earlier, but here it is in a nutshell:

The cooling works, and the laptop doesnt overheat even when playing some pretty demanding games for multiple hours. I havent run into any overheating problems so far, the highest temperature I have seen is somewhere below 70 celsius. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the temperatures are safe even up to 100 celsius.

If you already have the computer, you might want to download RealTemp to check out your temperatures while playing.

 

It works GREAT. The highest temperatures I've gotten were 64 degrees Celsius. I swapped the thermal paste with some ICD7 and the highest is now 56 degrees Celsius O_O.

 

Today I'm getting my N50 for a fairly reduced price. Reason: It has been bought, then delivered back within 14 days (the Norwegian right to regret a purchase ).

Basically, I want to find out why it was delivered back, but as the customer didn't tell the store, I have to find out myself. Therefore:

1) I've been trying to locate the "normal" errors of the N50, which is the speakers and the laggy keyboard. Is there any other errors I should know about before testing? And is there a "quick-to-fix-sollution" to it?

2) Is there any way to test the hardware for minor errors? Harddisk, GPU, CPU, RAM etc?

Regards
Clouds

 

Quick question folks.

I'd like to remove the "personal safe" icon from the desktop, any ideas how I would go about this?

EDIT.... Its ok, managed to find out that I had to register my finger prints first then I could remove it from the desktop using the fingerprint program.

 

RAM:
http://www.memtest.org/

Harddisk:
Windows built in: scandisk

GPU:
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

CPU:
Vista has powerful performance diagnostics at Control Panel > Performance and Information > Advanced
CPU-Z will also tell you what your processor is doing.

You can also try 3DMark to check if you get the normal N50 scores.

Im pretty sure there was a complete system check in Vista somewhere, cant find it now though as I am using linux.

 

^ Also have a look at my Tips and Tricks thread.

 

Thanks to both of you.
Well, I've been testing my machine close to a week now, but yesterday, this weird thing happened. Suddenly, my screen went black, and the sound started "lagging". I restarted the comp, and just after entering the desktop, the same thing happened again (though without the sound, as there were no sounds playing). After a couple of times with the same problem, I decided (I don't know why) to run it withouth the powerchord, and guess what... It ran smoothly.

I plugged the power chord in, and everything went perfect for a little while, untill the screen blackened again.

Do you know why and how to fix? I've been googling it, but got no adequate answer...

Regards
Clouds

 

I would try reinstalling the ATK suite of drivers and applications. This is betting on software problems, because ATK is related to power management.

You could also try running it in a Live Linux distro and see if you get the same problems. If yes, then it's most likely hardware, otherwise, software.

If software but not ATK, then try to trim down the amount of running applications, maybe you can isolate the culprit. Otherwise, a clean install / Windows recovery to factory settings?

If hardware, RMA...

 

Seems like it wasn't the PSU anyway.
Reinstalling the ATK drivers right now, so we'll see if it works.

Edit: Not the ATK drivers
Edit2: Gonna test the Linux distro soon.

 

I can not get the atk drivers to function in xp x64 i can press any buttons at the top and they do not change... I have installed all of them from asus site but can not get them to work

 

The Linux distro ran 8 hours (although semi-idle) without any problems, so I guess my next step is a clean Vista install...

 

My tips on overclocking the 9650GT in the N50:

Update drivers to 185.85

Download system tools 6.02
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.02.html

only install the performance tools, the update and monitor tools are not needed.

This installs an extra set of options on the nVidia control panel.

Set clock to 700, memory to 500, and shaders to 1650, these are pretty safe settings. By safe I mean you wont get any errors or driver failures. To find these max settings I used OCCT 3.1.0 GPU test with error checking enabled. While OCCT was running i upped each setting, one at a time until I started getting errors in OCCT. IE while keeping mem and shaders at stock increase clock until errors show up. Record max clock, reset to stock and run up the memory speed, same for shaders. Once you have max settings for each plug all of them in and test for errors.

At 700/500/1650 the max temp I get when running Furmark is 85c, seems high but Furmark is way more taxing than any game, and due to the fact that voltages on mobile cards are lower than desktops you cant smoke your card ever. (max temp at stock is 74c)

The card usually runs at 400/400 (automatically scaled back when not running 3d apps) and idles at about 53c with the above settings. 400/400 is where it sits most of the time at stock speeds due to the 'Energy Mizer'

I found that just turning off Transparency in Window Color and Appearance, tends to keep the card running in the lower power mode while running desktop apps (use GPU-Z to check the actual current speed of the card). I find that there is a slight screen blip when it switches to a higher memory speed, that's why I turned off transparency so it only bumps up when really needed, otherwize it jumps up on opening a new window sometimes (sometimes not) then goes back to 400/400.

If you want to really get into things you can also set up profiles in the nVidia control panel and massively Underclock the video card for extra battery life. One way i found was to link a low speed profile to a tiny app like Calculator (Fn+Enter) so for extra battery life I open calc, and minimize it (video runs at 100/100/500) while it is running.

Vista WEI went from 4.8 to 5.4/5.8 (gaming/desktop) with this tweak.

 

Well, I did a reinstall of Vista (not clean, but back to as it was from the factory), and... The blacking out is now only happening when starting games (tried Football Manager 09, Neverwinter Nights 2 and Battlefield 2), and not at startup... Fairly weird, don't you think?

 

I would normally say that theres a problem with the GPU, but if your linux ran nicely this might not be the case. Can you still play the games normally? Did you try any games with linux? Which drivers are you using?

 

The games are unplayable, as the screen goes black, and the keyboard locks (atleast it seems so, as I cannot put it to sleep). Nope, didn't try any demanding games in linux. I use the latest official Nvidia drivers.
Edit: I guess it's worth mentioning that these games ran great before i reinstalled Vista... Also tried 3D,arl06, and I scored 4,2k. And it seems the new grapich drivers isn't working optimal, as i now only score 4,8 in Vista, compared to 5 before...

 

What do you mean by "all of them"? You need:

ATK Drivers
ATK Generic Function Utility
ATK Hotkey
ATK OSD2

to run the hotbuttons.

You could still try different video drivers, e.g., from laptopvideo2go, or go back to the stock ASUS drivers.

It can still be hardware, because even though you ran linux you did not run any GPU-intensive applications, so the GPU may not have been put in the error state that may trigger the problems in Windows.

 

Had some problems with the newesn NVidia driver, so I reinstalled it, an 'till now I aint got any blackouts. I just hope it stays that way

 

ya they install on xp x64 but the keys still do not work!

 

Must be some bugs in the drivers, or compatibility issues.

I would suggest (if possible) to use Vista 64, driver support is much better in general (although I am not sure if that's the case for this particular machine).

 

Or use Ubuntu, you dont need any drivers for the hotkeys.

They work out of the box, just like everything else on this particular machine.

 

Hey anyone interested in a MacBook Pro style backlit chicklet keyboard?

The new Asus G51 has the same exact keyboard layout/style as our N50s, so the two should be inter-changable.

I've posted in the G51 review thread for help, if anyone wants to monitor/contribute to the thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=392176&page=16

 

well I have a dual boot vista and Ubuntu..... the issue is that the atk based drivers do install but only some of the keyboard keys ( screen on off key and mute key work) and thats it none of the top midea keys work.....

i want to use xp x64 since it doesn't have to load 100s of services i do not need and the software I use for editing runs sooo much faster on xp and do you really need dx 10 anyways.... the drivers should work on normal xp but i really prefer 64 editions since theirs 4gb