Asus N53SV & N53SN SandyBridge Owner Thread

Memory Limit Confusion about Intel Core i7 2630QM... as found here it states that using up to 8GB gives dual channel speed and yet going over the limit slowing to single channel

 

I agree with the 8GB limitation but it doesn't explain why the slots are not physicaly showing the correct placement, perhaps someone can provide the answer of which slots are for duel channel, the factory shipped the 2x2 in slots 1&2, I just moved them to 3&4 (lower as looking directly at them) and replaced the now empty 1&2 with the new 2x4---

BTW other than the above it's terrific , no other problems noted I own two other models EEEPC 1000HE and a F81SE, both flawless.

 

Fingers crossed! Can't wait to get my hands on it though.

Many thanks!

 

So basically you can have more than 8 GB of RAM in dual channel mode so long as you don't actually USE more than 8 GB of RAM? That's the way it reads.

 

I have just written to ASUS asking them to clarify this duel channel issue IE which slots, how much etc.

Will post their reply when recieved.

Dean

 

Found this that may answer my question concerning slots.

"Here is a more technical explanation: sockets 1 and 2 are physically connected to channel “A” while sockets 3 and 4 are physically connected to channel “B.” When you install memory modules on sockets 1 and 3 or 2 and 4, you are installing each memory module on a different channel, thus enabling the 128-bit access mode. If you install memory modules on the same channel (by installing them in sockets 1 and 2 or 3 and 4), the memory controller will only see a 64-bit device; therefore, dual-channel mode won’t be enabled." Source: Everything You Need to Know About Dual Channel | Hardware Secrets

If true, than Asus shipped the NB in single channel mode, and my addition of memory is now installed in duel mode. see above

 

I think you can check it with CPU-Z. It will report channel mode in Memory tab and slots the ram is in in SPD tab.

 

Nothing serious, I barely notice it. I do not feel it when running on battery, only when laptop is plugged in, but my wall socket doesn't have ground.

 

Thanks nebulus, and according to CPU-Z and my own it appears that I have 6GB's of mem per channel A & B in duel mode irrrespective of it's physical installed slot.

Apparently the i7 processor configures this automaticaly

Dean

 

ye i forgot to mention that, in battery it disappears, and if i connect to a grounded socket it disappears to.

 

does anyone have an idea how to configure the aspect ratio for my nvidia display card? I know the intel card has an option for that but it only applies to desktop screen. when i try to play dx10 or dx11 games it stretches the screen when i play with a 4:3 resolution

 

Play in windowed mode...

 

Not a good idea - you lose pixels vertically for window title and border.

Don't have laptop handy here but in NVIDIA Control Panel there should be "Change flat panel scaling" item under Display in the tree of settings. Pick the "Do not scale" or "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio".

 

I got my asus n53sv a week ago. Everything looks good and impressive except the speaker quality. The audio system had a great deal of distortion at high and moderate volume level.
Actually this is my second n53sv unit. The 1st unit was returned due to the same problem. The speakers had a noticeable rattle that was most apparent when the commercial announcer on Hulu would come on or when anything with bass was played over the speakers. This was very disappointing.
Does anyone experience the same problem, is there any way to improve the speaker quality?

 

I have a quick question:

My headphones (Monster Turbines) do not fit securely at all into the headphone jack. It sounds good and the audio plays through the headphone but it is very loose.

I also plugged the headphones into the microphone jack, and they fit PERFECTLY. However, the audio does not come out from the headphones/ it almost seems like they confused the headphone jack with the microphone jack

Any suggestions??

 

Unfortunately my nvidia control panel doesn't have that. It's missing a lot of things actually.

this is how it looks, i don't know if it's the same as all other owners of this laptop but i would like to know.

 

sorry, but playing windowed with 800x600 on a 1920x1080 desktop looks stupid, that is smaller than 1/4 the size of my screen.

 

Many thanks! I think I'll stick to 8GB then.

 

Looks like you have wrong driver or you are on a limited user account.
To check driver version, navigate to Help -> System information menu in this dialog.

 

Try adding a custom resolution of 960x540 and playing fullscreen in that.

 

Does the same thing happen when you turn off Asus Sonic master? If so, then keep it turned off and go to: control panel > sound > speakers -> properties > Check "disable all sound effects".

Can you tell your findings with that? Does it solve the distortion?

If it does, then download SRS audio sandbox, installed and tweak the sound effect to your likings. Could you report if that would fix the distortion?

 

i've already updated to the latest version of the drivers, 275.33 isn't it? And I'm on an administrator account, I'm not even sure if a limited account would even affect the nvidia control panel though.

 

Hmm... are you sure you are not running in Flex mode? I mean if you have 4GB available to channel A and 2GB to channel B, 2GB will run in dual channel mode and remaining 2 in single. CPU-Z may just report it as being dual as it kind of is. I'm not sure though.

pages 24-25
2nd Generation Intel® Core? Mobile Processor: Datasheet, Vol. 1

I would think channel A are slots 1 and 2, channel B 3 and 4. So if I were you, I would put 4GBs in 1 and 3 and 2GBs in 2 and 4, just to be safe. If I'm not mistaken about the channels and the slots of course.

 

Hi Cabb, thank you for the advice. After installing SRS sandbox, the speaker and sound quality become much better. Wonderful! Is it because the pre-installed sonic master is a fail product?

 

I don't know. But so far I know there are more N53 owners complaining about distortion of the sound and they have to disable all sound enhancements to get rid of it.

Basically the Asus Sonic is like an equalizer/amplifier, and I think some of the batches have less quality speakers (?) that cannot handle Asus Sonic very well.

Right now there are 4 realtek drivers on the website of Asus. I don't know which one they used for my stock version. But I downgraded everything to the earliest release (which also contains Asus Sonic) and it sounds better (less distortion) than the latest release.

However with SRS I don't have that problem. But SRS actualy acts like an audio driver. So it might also be that there is a problem with the realtek drivers? Or realtek drivers in combination with Asus Sonic?

 

Not so, A=1&3
B=2&4

12200 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM0' has 2048 MB (serial number 52262BAB)
Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM1' has 4096 MB
Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM0' has 2048 MB (serial number 52262B02)
Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM1' has 4096 MB

Still waiting for a response from ASUS :SLEEP:

 

I'm ordering an asus N53SV-A2 the retailer states that it is full hd but other retailers state 1366x768 screen. anyone from usa confirm what version of the a2 they have and where they bought from? thanks

 

We N53SN user got today the 207 BIOS Asus download The BIOS is running fine by me

 

I have a quick question:

My headphones (Monster Turbines) do not fit securely at all into the headphone jack. It sounds good and the audio plays through the headphone but it is very loose.

I also plugged the headphones into the microphone jack, and they fit PERFECTLY. However, the audio does not come out from the headphones/ it almost seems like they confused the headphone jack with the microphone jack

Btw they fit perfectly into ipod touch and phone and my old desktop.

Any suggestions??

 

HDD replaced with Intel SSD 510 series. Here are the results:

 

The headphones fit fine on my NS53SN. Afaik the headphone jack is also a s/pdif jack and don't these two have similar but not identical plugs?

 

Looks delicious...
I'm curious about the results of the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drives with 4GB SSD and 500GB HDD

 

As soon as mine arrives you'll find out.

 

I put original-mechanic HDD into external USB3 case and weekly image backup now takes unbelivable 7 minutes, about 60GB is occupied.

However, must say that Intel X-25M which I have in different laptop is very fast too, and sometimes I have feeling that it's faster than this new 510 series.

 

Hmmm, I have the same problem as Eryth... And I bought the same memory from the same vendor, Amazon. Looks like this memory is incompatible with the Asus N53SV-XV1.

Anyone have a success story with a different Brand & Model of memory for the Asus N53SV-XV1 notebook?

I'd like to hear a story of no-lockups after upgrading to 8 Gb aftr weeks of heavy use.

Thanks,

Panther256

 

Crap, mine just arrived in the mail today... I haven't tested them out yet, laptop isn't due to arrive until tomorrow.

Did you try running them in different slots? I plan on putting the Crucial in 1/3 and the stock stuff in 2/4.

 

orgasmerator: I bought the Corsair 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz

You might have better luck with the Crucial, hopefully.

I would strongly recommend setting up the laptop with the old mem (minimal stuff and MS updates) then doing the Recovery process, then putting in the new ram and testing before going further. I encountered the problem from an idle desktop (on AC power with all power options set to none). Took about an hour, maybe 90 minutes before the problem occured.

At this point (After cooking with FurMark for 45 minutes) I'm pretty sure the memory is the issue.

Panther256

 

My bad, got the Crucial/Corsair mixed up. Unfortunately, I bought the same 8gig set from Amazon as well. Who would've thunk, with all the good reviews, that there'd be an issue...

Now I'm thinking I'll hold off on the fresh install and just run tests with all the mem, 4gigs of mem, and 12gigs of mem while Windows is already installed on there.

If you run FurMark, is it still necessary to do Memtest?

Thanks for the quick response. I was actually thinking about the G. Skill stuff off Newegg for way, way cheaper too! Dangit. Oh well...

 

Hi,
Because my dell xp 15z has a malfunction and they cannot deliver another xps 15z with full hd screen i will get a refund. Now i need to buy another laptop and the asus n53sv or n53sn seems to be the one.

Can you guys clarify this for me? That the only differences between the sv and the sn are: Blu-ray player, and the nvidia 540/550 ?

I will get one of these 2 and order a vertex 3 hdd, (the laptop does have Sata3?). And mabey getting a chiplet keyboard because i got used to it during the experience of my dell xps 15z.

 

orgasmerator: I did a memtest 86+ for 4 hours, passed with flying colors. I didn't try the 12, I'm old school and don't like to mix RAM brands due to experiencing timing issues on older systems. I just ran the Corsair 8.

At least with the single 4 GB module things are working again. I'll just have to RMA the RAM back to Amazon and play the waiting game to determine what Brand/Model of RAM works in this system.

Otherwise I'm impressed with the notebook. The keyboard flexes a bit but as I'm not a typist it doesn't bother me at all. I love the graphics and the Windows Experience Index.

I picked up a student copy of Windows 7 Pro and did a fresh, clean install and gained 1.1 on my Intel HD score.

Note: If you decide to do a fresh install, do the OS, chipset, LAN, Windows Updates. Many of your drivers will come with the Windows Updates. Then you can upgrade them and grab the missing ones from Asus. (I Love a clean install). I also did a flash to the latest BIOS using a USB drive and the flash utility built-into BIOS (Easy Flash?).

Best of all: No Bloatware!

Panther256

 

Binolirao: Double check on New Egg for the specs. Mine did not come with a Blu-Ray (at least I don't think it did). The SN I saw was a i5 and I needed an i7 for video and image processing...

 

Has anyone tried an SDXC card in the N53SV?

While I'm at it: Has anyone installed an OCZ Vertex 3 or Agility 3?

Thanks

 

Well i won't be needing the blu-ray. And the SV version i found is this one: N53SV-SZ016V (link: Asus 15,6" N53SV - i7 2630/6GB/640GB: 90N1QA759H6339VL133Y - Paradigit and the SN version this one: Asus N53SN-SZ129V ( dutch site: ASUS N53SN-SZ129V @ Azerty)

Theu both seem the same except the 550-540 and the player.

Update: Seems i have to go with the Asus N53SN-SZ129V because the SV is EOL overhere, emailed multiple webshops and the all say the same. Can anyone confirm the sata interface is SATA 3?

 

A lot of good info, thanks! I'm still a little fuzzy on what I should run to check when I slap the 8gigs of Corsair in... And you're right, I don't like to mix RAM brands as well, for the same reasons. I was just being greedy!

So when you ran memtest for 4hrs, it was fine but doing normal things it crashed? I'm just curious what I should do to replicate your problem or find a way to stress the crap out of the memory and see if it fails.

I do type quite a bit on the laptop and I have a few bookmarks for the island type kb and also a white one, haha. I hope it doesn't bother to much so that I'll have to buy one, I've already spent so much on this!

Your fresh install tips are great, thanks!

Sunny

 

Hey guys, i replaced atheros with intel 6200 because the atheros was amazingly slow for some reason.... Now its a lot faster, but when i go on youtube, it gives static from the speakers...i tried to move the wires away from the speaker, but it doesn't help. Any one can help me out?

 

Got the SN with 16GB RAM, and swapped in a Crucial 512GB SSD (HD Tune shows 400+MB/s on read). Clean install but also installed all of Asus' bloatware. Keyboard flex is bad as I'm a touch-typist. I will likely swap in chiclet.

One thing that is bothering me: When I log-in, or whenever I wake up from a sleep (not hibernate), the machine comes up quickly, yet after a few minutes' usage, it will stop for almost 30 seconds with the HDD light constantly on during that time, then it'll go back to normal. During that 30 seconds stretch, I can still move the mouse pointer yet nothing else will respond, not even hitting the Windows key, or minimize everything to desktop. Ctrl-Alt-Del also postpones... All events are trapped and postponed. What could be running on the HDD at that moment that is taking all the resources away?

 

You might have damaged something during the replacement? That Intel works fine by me

 

Anyone updated to BIOS 213? (on xv1)

 

I updated the bios on my N53SN, and also updated the intel chip drivers (go to intel and use their online wizard). There is also a new wireless driver available.

Before this last update I was getting many "Nvidia graphic driver stopped responding and has been recovered" errors. Especially when using 3ds Max 2012 and watching flash videos. As the bios updates the vbios of the intel graphics, I'm guessing that the handling of switching from intel to nvidia graphics has been improved.

Things certainly seem much smoother now.

I had a good hard session the last few days with 3ds max and no errors.

So well worth trying if you have experienced any graphics problems.

D.

 

orgasmerator: The best test to see if you have the memory incompatibility issue is to turn off all power options (Don't sleep, hibernate, energy save) and let the laptop idle for a few hours. Mine had the issue in under 60 minutes - Hard lockup, horizontal video corruption with extreme flicker. If you can run for 3+ without the issue you are probably good.

startrooper: I flashed my Asus N53SV-XV1 to the latest BIOS. No issues. Anything in particular you are wondering about?

Panther256