Asus N80Vn-GP011C: First Impressions/Review

Yes. If you put it in a bookbag the screen flex causes the wristpad to scratch the screen. Somebody way up in this thread mentioned this issue but I didn't believe him (because of the rubber bits like you said). In order to fix this problem Asus would need to put something behind the screen to stiffen it.

 

Has anybody tried installing Windows 7 on this yet?
Just want to confirm if the drivers for Vista (x64) would work on Windows 7 (x64) ?

 

I'd love to know too- have an x5?

 

everything in windows 7 works fine on here, with the exception of some of the asus extras (nb probe) and all that, the main functions are good. using x64 atm on n80vn-A1

 

I think the only Asus specific stuff is SOME of the software that runs the special keys. Wifi/Bluetooth (mostly so I can shut them totally off) and the function keys. Hopefully those will still work. (And I wish I could throw an Intel SSD in there that was big enough. Oh well.)

 

bought a p9500 this morning for a nice price any1 know if it'll work in this lappy? :x

 

I'd assume it would work fine-it's almost the same as what this model ships with anyway, and some similar models ship with that.

 

haha yeap, worked out fine. idling @ 35C, 29 seconds from boot to desktop ^^

 

I'm gonna try windows 7 pro in a bit.
Has this laptop already been discontinued? Does that mean if something terrible happens to my laptop Asus won't be able to fix it? Is my 1st year accidental warranty still in effect?
-Nos

 

Hey guys, I've been running Windows 7 64 bit on my N90Vn-GP011C ever since the RTM came out. Everything runs really smooth except the only real issue I have run into deals with nvidia drivers. I haven't done a lot of research on the issue but I'm pretty sure the problem lies with nvidia and not the laptop... By the way, I am running the latest 186.81 drivers from the nvidia site. It gives me a blue screen but when you disable powermizer it works fine.

 

What problem are you having? I've had zero issues with Nvidia's drivers under 64-bit Vista or 7.

I just double checked, and I'd be running the 186.81 drivers too.

 

Really? That is weird. After installing a couple of the newer nvidia drivers (even tried ones from laptopvideo2go), my screen would go black for a couple of seconds and a message would appear saying that my nvidia display driver failed but has recovered. Its okay now because I went into the registry to disable powermizer but I'm not sure why it doesn't work normally with powermizer on...

 

The biggest problem I've had with Windows 7 Professional x64 is with the Nvidia drivers. I've gotten 2 black screens since my install, but it always comes back after a few seconds. What exactly is "powermizer"?.

Btw, for those who want win7 to handle the security and not the asus suite, here's the drivers for the fingerprint reader.

 

I'd guess that's either a hardware problem or something else doing it (or conflicting with it).

I've run every driver release since February for 64-bit Vista and now 7, and had zero issues with it. I even run Folding @ Home on my GPU a ton (right now in fact!)

I don't run much Asus software though. In fact I don't think I have ANY Asus software installed under 7, and only had 1 or 2 pieces on under Vista. Maybe some of it is causing issues?

Also I should ask-did you guys do clean installs of 7? "Upgrade" installs tend to cause problems with any OS.

 

I'm having the same issue with the nvidia graphics drivers. Installed Windows 7 initially as an upgrade from Vista 32bit, once I installed the nvidia drivers, anytime I switched to the aero theme, or ran anything in 3D the computer would freeze and I'd have to reboot.

I reinstalled Windows 7 64-bit after formatting the original vista os partition, and still have the same problems.

After I install the nvidia drivers from either the website, or windows update, my screen would get little grainy line flickers sometimes, and then 3 minutes after switching to aero theme, I'd crash, or running a 3d app, I'd crash.

I called Microsoft Tech Support, and they told me to install DirectX, didn't work, and then they told me to go to nvidia's site to download their drivers even after I told them I had. Got fed up with them not being able to help me

I also had the same problem as arktrance at the beginning, the black screen would happen twice, and I'd get the message saying the nvidia drivers had failed and recovered. But now my computer just freezes and I have to reboot, sometimes I get the blue screen.

Hey Arktrance, how do I locate the powermizer to disable it?

 

Just tried formatting the laptop, reinstalling Vista 64bit, then Win 7 64bit, still have the problem with the computer crashing after installing the Nvidia drivers and using aero themes or 3d apps. I did a reg search for powermizer and could not locate any. I tried installing powermizer switch, and the program tells me there is not powermizer on the system.

Grrrrr.... looks like I gotta go back to Vista until Nvidia fixes their drivers

 

Like I said before, it's not a driver issue.

If you've done a CLEAN Windows 7 install, and installed Nvidia's newest drivers for your OS (and 32/64-bit version) from their site (not Windows Update), and you're having issues, it's either a hardware problem, or (probably less likely) a conflict with something else you've installed.

Nvidia isn't going to fix their drivers because there's nothing to fix-they're working flawlessly and have been for over a year with Vista/7. Can this finish a Folding work unit? I'd guess not-if it's crashing on something as basic as the Windows' desktop, it's probably a fairly major hardware issue, like bad video RAM or damage from (eek!) overclocking or just luck of the draw.

 

It might just be for Windows 7 but you will have to add the powermizer reg entries yourself into your registry.

This is what I did to disable powermizer under Windows 7:

Open regedit and go to the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video

When you get here, there should be a couple of folders here with random letters and numbers. Under each of these folders, there are more folders and the one that you are interested in is the 0000. Find the 0000 folder with the most stuff in it (should be a huge list).

Here is a picture of mine. It happened to be that it was my first random letters/numbers folder, then 0000: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/Metal_Zoa/regedit.jpg

You will want to create 5 registries in this folder that deal with powermizer. Do this by right clicking in an empty space, go to New and then DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name the first one PerfLevelSrc then modify its value to 2222.
Name the second one PowerMizerDefault and set its value to 1.
Third entry is PowerMizerEnable, set at a value of 0.
Fourth entry is PowerMizerLevel, set at a value of 1.
And the last entry is PowerMizerLevelAC, set at a value of 1.

Close regedit and restart. You shouldn't get anymore blue or black screens anymore. Now, I'm not too knowledgeable about powermizer but I think it will decrease your battery life a little bit because you will be running your GPU at a higher capacity. Someone else that knows more could correct me if I am wrong or add more detail!

Also: This thread helped me out a bit if you want to take a look: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=261929
I had another thread that I was making reference to but can't find anymore. Anyways, try this out, see if it works and sorry for this really quick post I made. Gotta run to my class now...!!!

 

It is a driver issue, which I have now resolved! Wolfpup please PM your phone number to me so I can say to your ear "I told you so!"

I had done a clean install, formatted entire hard drive, loaded Vista 64bit, then loaded Windows 7 64bit, and still the computer got random screen artifacts and crashes soon after installing the latest Nvidia drivers.

Well, I'm not the only one with this problem and have found out that it IS a driver issue. After going to laptopvideo2go's forum, I've found tons of other people with the same video card having the same problems.

I have resolved this problem but using OLDER NVIDIA DRIVERS. The 185.70 drivers work, anything after that does not. There are a lot of other people with this same problem on the laptopvideo2go's forums, and they have all resolved this problem by using the older nvidia's drivers. Any driver after this version will not work.

I'm very happy to say "In yo face Wolfpup!" I'm even happier now that I've resolved the issue for the time being until Nvidia get's their crap together and fixes their driver, this happened when Vista released years ago to, the new nvidia drivers didn't work.

On a side note, which ATK file am I suppose to download to make the Asus hotkeys work? The ones that turn on/off bluetooth and wifi.

 

Wolfpup I think you are wrong on this one. I too have had this problem, but if I install any of my Beta copies of Win 7 64 or 32 the problem does NOT happen EVER. Full RTM happens as soon as I install the Nvidia drivers with no other drivers or software installed, and no matter if I use the Nvidia downloaded drivers or the MS supplied Nvidia drivers. From what I can find looking in other forums it appears to only effect the 9650gt cards running 7 .
on Asus laptops. Win 7 seems to lower the power or clock rate too low in conjunction with the powermizer settings. Turning off powermizer eliminates the the problem but may have other future unwanted effects.

 

Hmm, 185.70 drivers work? I could have sworn I tried out those drivers before. Maybe I'll give them a try later to see if it works out for me.

As for ATK, you need to install ATK Hotkey Utility, ATK Generic Function Service Utility and ATKACPI Driver. This will make all your buttons work I believe. There is also ASUS ATKOSD2 Utility. This just changes the images you see when you press the buttons (the ripple effect images). I personally just installed the first 3 and left out ASUS ATKOSD2 Utility but the ripple effect is pretty cool haha.

 

I do change my settings to "high performance" soon after installing, so I suppose that MIGHT change some setting in Windows that isn't exposed to the user, but...

That still screams "hardware problem". And you didn't say-did you do a clean install, format your hard drive while installing 7?

Like I said, I've had 8 months in 64-bit Vista and now 7, roughly 18 hours a day, and a large percentage of that my GPU (and CPU) is Folding, and when it's not doing that, it's playing Blu Rays or games. And my Folding team has dozens more Folding on similar GPUS, and none of us have ever seen or heard about anything like that. Meanwhile the symptoms match what you'd get with a hardware flaw...so I'm extremely skeptical.

The only possibility I can see would be if that "high performance" setting in Windows is actually changing how it handles the GPU, even if that's not exposed to us through the control panel. Maybe that's what's going on.

 

Okay, I've been thinking about this some more-what specific model do you guys have? Both GP011Cs? And you said this is a problem specific to the 9650GT in Asus notebooks? Mine's kind of a revision newer (can't think of the exact model off hand), also with the 9650GT. If Asus implemented something wrong in earlier versions, that could explain those symptoms and why I (and my team) don't have them. They definitely sound like a hardware problem, and maybe the GPU isn't getting enough power, causing artifacting, etc., without it actually being the GPU that's at fault. I'm sure weird power could do something like that too.

That or my earlier idea about Windows changing GPU power settings based on the power profile that aren't actually exposed to us is all I can think of right now. It CAN'T be a driver issue, or else everyone would have it, it wouldn't be specific to certain notebooks, etc. (Not to mention Nvidia would have caught it.)

Just because you (hopefully) resolved it by messing with normally hidden driver settings doesn't mean it has anything to do with the drivers (and for the above reason, CAN'T have anything to do with the drivers). It may be forcing the laptop to provide a more stable or correct power to it, or something along those lines.

At any rate, you can wait all you want, a driver update isn't going to fix this (aside from as was mentioned-the possibility that older drivers didn't support some power feature that newer ones do...but that's not actually a flaw). One way or another this HAS to be hardware based, baring that these aren't on clean installs of a final version of 7.

 

Yeah, I got the GP011C. I think it is the first one out of the N80Vn series?

On a side note, does anybody have their hard drive appear as an ejectable disk on the taskbar? It didn't appear like that under Vista but after installing Windows 7 it did.

 

Hey, sorry for the double post but I found this from another forum:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...board_id=3&model=N80Vn&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Post number 5 and 6 pretty much explain the problem here. Seems to make sense. What do you guys think? And I'm not sure about bios flashing either. Seems like some dangerous stuff.

 

Yikes, I see Asus has a new BIOS for my system...I'm almost scared to try it in case it introduces this problem you guys are having :-0

 

I have the GP011C as well, bought it about a week after this original thread opened.

Will the powermizer regedit work on the very latest nvidia drivers? Also can I make the regedit before updating the drivers or do I need to do it afterwards in safemode? Wondering what the side effects could be besides decreased battery life.

I'm still confused as to why this would be a hardware issue and not a driver or Windows 7 issue. I used the same drivers during Vista with no problem, so this leads me to think that maybe its just a combination of all 3, hardware/drivers/windows 7.

@Wolfpup I was having this problem before updating to the new Asus Bios, and afterwards so it didn't make a difference for me, but it did help fight the "checking nv ram" issue on boot up.

 

Vista 64 has Never given me any issue nor did any of the Beta's ie 7000 7022
7048 7057 7077 all with then Beta Nvidia drivers. As soon as RTM released to technet/msdn the trouble started.

 

Dang, I tried to upgrade my BIOS last night, and couldn't find a hassle free way to do it, so I just gave up. Surprised they don't just have a Windows utility like most people do. Oh well, my 207 BIOS seems fine anyway.

It may be some change in 7 and/or the drivers, but it still sounds like the actual problem is with the hardware, since you can use those drivers, that GPU, and that OS in a slightly different model laptop with no issues. The power saving features or whatever for that laptop may not work correctly when applied too aggressively, or something along those lines.

I wouldn't worry all that much about disabling power features though, if that's fixing it for you guys. Theoretically it could wear it out faster if there's some defect, but I've been Folding on mine for 8 months with no issues, so it seems like a pretty darned solid GPU.

 

Yeah, the regedit will work on the latest drivers. I have it set up for 186.81 which is the latest drivers on the nvidia website. I don't think it will work if you make the values under the registry and then update your drivers because when I removed my drivers to test out another one, it removed all my reg files I made so I assume it would have opposite effects.

 

I have fixed the problem by doing the edited BIOS update from laptopvideo2go's forum. They have a bios rom to download. What it basically does is change how much power the video card is getting to the correct value. I'm using it now with no problems and with the latest drivers.

 

Bios change? Could you please link it, these Nvidia drivers for Windows 7 RTM ing suck.

 

No they don't. They're 100% rock solid (at least on the release version of 7). Again, issues are hardware based...

 

Issues are not hardware based, because W7 RC worked perfectly fine, it just had to be mended with a modified bios because of the drivers that aren't compatible with some 9650m GT laptops. You shouldn't have to overvolt the GPU when it is in powersaving mode to compensate for the drivers ing up.

 

Thank you very much for the link to the BIOS. Works perfectly.

Yay 42 posts!

 

What link where is it ??

 

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/25547-a-possible-solution-to-nvidia-9650m-gt-driverproblems

Download the bios from the 2nd post, when you're at your laptop's post screen press F4 and it takes you a flash utility that lets you navigate to the bios on your hard drive and flash it.

 

I'd like for an "official" release to come out from either Nvidia, MS, or Asus. But until then, this bios fix is working fine so far. No problems what so ever, been playing Dragon Age on max setting (minus anti-aliasing) and it plays great!

I still don't see how Wolfpup continues to say its a hardware issue, especially when a small change of a bios fixes the problem. Wouldn't it be a bios or nvidia driver issue then.

 

From what I understand, the BIOS increases the actual voltage of the card by .001V (or some similarly small number) which puts it in line with what it actually required. So in that sense it is a hardware issue, albeit one that is fixed with software.

 

hey guys, i need some help.

i've installed win7 on my asus n80vn-c1, thus overwriting my previous vista system. i installed it successfully however, every time i boot up im still prompted to choose which OS i want to run (Vista or 7). i was shocked because i thought the vista option shouldnt be there anymore since it was overwritten.

any suggestions?

edit: has anyone tried out nvidia's latest driver (195.62) for the 9650m gt?

 

Boot into vista and see if it works. If it does, then you didn't overwrite it.
Go into either Win7 or Vista. Go to Start, right-click on Computer, Manage, and under Storage go to Disk Management. You can see your partitions there. That'll tell you if you still have Vista installed.
-Nos

 

I'm not quite sure if you didn't do a clean install, or if it is clean but just left behind the OS. I did a clean install and wiped the drive-it's run great so far (although the new task bar isn't 100% better than the old one).

I just double checked, and I'm only running 186.81 for the drivers, probably because I'm too lazy to check for updates that often :lol:

No issues with any of the drivers I've run though (and I run Folding@Home on my GPU (and CPUs) almost constantly since I bought it).

 

hey guys thanks for the replies.

i hypothesized it was windows.old that was causing it to boot up two OS's so i deleted it via disk cleanup and its working fine now

downloaded the new nvidia driver just now, and im a tad bit worried it eff's up my system. it's worth a try though, since they're saying this one was made for win7.

i got a question for you guys: which of the asus software package did you keep on in your systems? i also found out that the on-board mic doesnt work anymore. anyone else with that problem?

 

The only Asus software I installed again are ATK Hotkey Utility, ATK Generic Function Service Utility and ATKACPI Driver. These make your function buttons work on your laptop. There is also ASUS ATKOSD2 Utility which makes the cool ripple effects when you use the function buttons but I didn't install this one.

Hmm, for the on-board mic, I'm not sure. I'd have to test it myself. Could be a missing driver or something...

 

I didn't reinstall ANY Asus software at all when I reinstalled my OS (Windows 7). (I had under Vista, but don't want any extra stuff.)

 

I've got a strange issue going on with my dvd drive and also effects my external bluray, this ONLY happens in 7. The drive are not visable or usable. Yet I can boot from and install 7 with either drive. When I boot Vista (dual boot) both drives work fine. Device mgr shows the drives but says the drivers are not installed and can't find any. removal and reboot doe not change it. Any ideas ??

P.S. I did udate the bios hoping that would fix it but no luck

 

I'd ask if you have your chipset drivers installed, except I'm not sure I ever installed any, given 7 is new enough to already have them.

Not sure what's going on, but I did a clean install and my internal DVD and external/USB Blu Ray drive both work fine, same as Vista, without doing anything.

 

I flashed my bios yesterday with the latest update from Asus that deals with the nvidia driver issue because I didn't want to use the modded bios posted here before.

Glad to say that it fixed the driver issues and I can now run the latest drivers from nvidia with no display driver errors.

And I also don't see my hard drive as being ejectable/removable media on the taskbar anymore. Woot!

 

Hey guys, i just got nba 2k10 for my rig.

The physics is incredibly demanding on the GPU/CPU and i was wondering what the safe temperatures are for running games on the N80?

Mine clocks at 72C for the CPU and around 56C for both cores. Are those within safe range?

 

Do you mean 72c for the GPU? I think all that sounds fine for it under load.

Yikes, I hadn't run Hardware Monitor for a while, and when I just did, my CPUs are at 81c, and my GPU at 87c under full load (SMP and GPU Folding at home)

I think that's still within tolerances, but it's a lot hotter than I've seen it. I wonder if it's just hot in here, or if my vents are getting clogged up...