Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 Owner's Lounge

This kinda sounds like a BIOS issue. After swapping out an SSD (or any hard drive) I think the best thing to do is to boot directly into the BIOS and make sure the new drive is listed on the BIOS main screen. THEN, SAVE and exit the BIOS.

Also, how are you attempting to reinstall Windows? Via original Windows 10 disk, image or something else?

 

Hello everyone. I am a proud owner of the UX501. However, the touch screen had stopped working after a windows 10 update sometime in December. I've contacted Asus about this issue and their solutions have not worked. One of the times I contacted them, Asus states I should bring in the laptop to them. Before I resort to that I tried the following:
1. Update the chipset driver
2. Update the Asus driver
3. Troubleshoot by scanning for hardware changes
4. Uninstalled all of the Human Interface Devices (there was only HID - compliant wireless radio controls) and restarted computer

I was wondering if anyone else has this similar issue with their touch screen? Even Windows says "No touch input or pen" available.

 

Welp, I purchased this laptop on launch and today it randomly went to this "Aptio Setup Utility" screen and there's nothing I can do.

Every time I boot on the laptop it goes straight into this screen. F9 on startup does nothing.

Did this fancy SSD really die so quickly? I have to send it into Asus for repairs?

 

The SSD is not listed in the BIOS (recently updated). I am trying to install Windows 10 from a USB drive.

 

Well, that means that either the SSD you purchased is bad, or it's not compatible with this PC. My knowledge ends here, sorry.
Either way, I'd return the SSD you purchased.

 

I spent tens of hours on this recently with a new HP Envy and a Samsung SSD M.2 stick (the 850 SATA variant) - and in the end boiled it down to either a bad SSD stick or a BIOS incompatibility. I then ruled out the former, by using an external 'caddy' to turn the M.2 SSD stick into a standard SATA drive that my other computer could use - and noticed that the SSD stick worked just fine. So was left with the conclusion that it was a simple incompatibility - and given HP's track record it was probably a deliberately engineered-in incompatibility (e.g. via a White-List).
I know ASUS is a different brand, but I think DEFIANTLY's advice is spot on - if the BIOS doesn't recognise the drive, it's going to be very difficulty to do anything about it.

(BTW - In case you are interested, I returned the HP Envy too. Both of them. And decided to get an ASUS UX501 - and am just waiting for the Skylake VW variant to become officially available here in the UK.)

 

I meant to ask... what is the model of SSD that is shipped with the latest UX501?

 

It's a known issue that all other models than the 512 PCI SSD models are not compatible with NME and PCI SSD's - You can however make it work if you unlock the bios.

 

aptio setup is your bios setup screen right? if so, under "Boot options" if your SSD is not listed, its likely dead and you might want to consider sending it in.

 

try a complete windows 10 reinstall, rather than just upgrade" - update all your drivers available on the asus webpage.

 

Hi everyone. I've seen some posts here regarding the new BIOS update version 211, yet I don't see this available for download via ASUS's driver page. Note that I have the ux501VW (Skylake) version.
Just wondering if maybe this isn't available for my model yet? Thanks!

 

No. 211 is for JW. VW BIOS version is 204 as per ASUS support page.

 

I have the exact same problem. My touch screen was intermittently working for several weeks before it just stopped altogether. Customer support told me to go into device manager, but Windows says my touchscreen device is unplugged. I was told to RMA it, but that isn't an option right now because I need my computer daily. Does anyone know the turn around time for RMA's?

Also sometimes the lower left corner of my screen does not look or feel fully set. It may be loose or something.

 

as mentioned to the other guy... try a complete windows 10 reinstall, rather than "just upgrade" - update all your drivers available on the asus webpage - remember to go through the windows 8.1 drivers as well as the windows 10 ones..

 

I have to admit, this does sound like a hardware issue to me, considering your mention of the screen's corner not being seated correctly. That shouldn't be that way.

As powerful and pretty as this laptop is, I'm fairly disappointed with the build quality. Yes, it's aluminum. ...but the cuts, fit and attention to fine detail is missing.

 

Hey guys,

Can I ask you all for a favor?

I have the ASUS ZENBOOK Pro UX501VW DS71T (N501VW)

Can you test this laptop with a 3 screen setup?
(i.e. one monitor via hdmi and another via the Thunderbolt 3 using a mini-DP to DP or HDMI adapter)

I got my first laptop approximately a month ago and this is my issue:
The monitor connected via the thunderbolt connection is flickering when using 3 screens. The flicker happens only when the laptop is connected to AC power. When on battery, it works, most of the time.
Everything also works correctly with only 2 screens.

I tried everything I could think of, including clean Windows 10 and even Windows 8 installations (not via the recovery option), but no fix.

Thinking it was a hardware issue, 3 weeks ago I requested an RMA, and last Friday I got a new laptop to replace the old one. (3 weeks wait time)

This new laptop has the same symptoms. It also seems to have heating issues as the fan starts full throttle when laptop is idle and doing nothing.
HWiNFO64 shows Core #0/1/2/3 Distance to TjMax at 75 degrees celsius, on idle.

Here's the kicker. When we first ordered the laptop, we ordered two. One for a colleague at work. He doesn't have the above problem.

I understand that this is a rare case scenario, as most people will use at most one external monitor, but I would like a laptop costing over $2000CAD to work at least as well as my 2010 dell XPS (which runs on 3 screens).

Detailed accessories used:
- 23" HP Pavilion 23xw 1080p
- 27" FMS-20YV LED 1440p
- Benfei mini-DP to USB-c adapter

NOTE: I also posted on intel's forum in hopes it was a driver issue, but they sent me back to ASUS.


Thanks,

 

Just tested it on mine and no flickering here.I'm using this adapter
https://goo.gl/photos/R951DX5J4Gs1Jdzi9

and this how it looks
https://goo.gl/photos/AbCBW24NrpATeBBg7

not fancy but does the work, hope it helps

 

wierd problem mine works fine on three screens. Which monitor is connected to what, and what mini dP adapter are you using for the connection - is the problem present at all times when connected to AC, what about just after a reinstall ?

Your heating problems indicate that you have some malware or other unwanted processes running, 75c is way too high for idle - did you do a complete reinstall of windows and update all drivers via intel, nvidia and asus ? are you running the latest bios?

 

First, I'd like to thank all that help test the three monitor setup.

@SpQg.
Regarding the heating issue, I tried with a clean Windows 10 installation as well. Same thing.

----------

I found the solution.

The problem is called the ground loop effect.
Basically, all three devices (monitors and laptop) connect into the power sockets using a 3 prong plug.
By removing the grounding on the laptop's AC PSU the problem is gone and everything works fine. (Not sure of the consequences, as 3 to 2 prong adapters are banned in Canada, and that is probably for a good reason.)

So to recap, the ASUS ZENBOOK Pro UX501VW DS71T (N501VW) produced on 2015-12 batches seems to suffer from ground loop effect.
Right now two out of three notebooks of this model have the issue.

RMAing my last one as it has some overheating problem as well. It runs about 9 degrees Celsius hotter than it should, triggering the fans to run at max speed making it sound like a hair dryer.

Will see how the next replacement will react.

At my company we went through well, and are still using, over a hundred laptops, most non-Asus, and none showed these symptoms.

Is there someone I can contact, at ASUS, that can look into this, and maybe advise their manufacturers to implement a fix?

Thanks,
CBP

 

If says "Non touch input available" in Propieties, I'm pretty sure it's a driver bug. This is the problem with Windows 10 Home (and Pro). The OS automatically install new drivers that conflicts with the older ones (In most cases, you first have to delete the older one in order to put a new one). This could lead to graphic glitches, battery drains (due to two drivers working together) and even data drains if you are tied to a metered internet plan since you can't disable automatic updates in Windows 10. Or, like in your case, the failure of a vital part of the device. In this case I recommend you to try Windows 8.1 drivers from Asus page to see if they work. If they do, I recommend you to disable Windows Update service so you don't suffer this problem anymore. If you still have problems with it, use a LiveUSB with an Android or Linux Distro (since they already come with Drivers installed) and try it. With this method you will discard a driver problem. If it still doesn't work then it's probably a hardware issue and you'll have to contact ASUS...

Cheers!

 

If says "Non touch input available" in Propieties, I'm pretty sure it's a driver bug. This is the problem with Windows 10 Home (and Pro). The OS automatically install new drivers that conflicts with the older ones (In most cases, you first have to delete the older one in order to put a new one). This could lead to graphic glitches, battery drains (due to two drivers working together) and even data drains if you are tied to a metered internet plan since you can't disable automatic updates in Windows 10. Or, like in your case, the failure of a vital part of the device. In this case I recommend you to try Windows 8.1 drivers from Asus page to see if they work. If they do, I recommend you to disable Windows Update service so you don't suffer this problem anymore. If you still have problems with it, use a LiveUSB with an Android or Linux Distro (since they already come with Drivers installed) and try it. With this method you will discard a driver problem. If it still doesn't work then it's probably a hardware issue and you'll have to contact ASUS...

Cheers!

 

Granted I don't know what all of those abbreviations are and if they are the cause of your issue, sometimes a SSD won't show up unless it's been previously formatted.
I've run into this a few times, ended up buying an external case to format an ned drive prior to popping it into a machine to do the OS.

 

Hi AlbertBarnes,

I had the same BSOD issue since I bought my UX501 unit. It came with with the usual windows 8.1 and an upgraded version of the Nvidia graphics card (I can't remember which one). Since I kept experiencing all the kinds of BSOD (name everything that has something to do with drivers, I have experienced it in this machine.), What I did was to update everything to the latest version drivers and windows update.
After installation of softwares such as Autocad 2010 and 2015, Photoshop CC and Sketchup pro to really test if everything was fine, I found out that opening, switching and running between these softwares caused a BSOD's with any version execpt nVidia driver 359.00.

And recently I have updated to nVidia driver 361.43 thinking It is always better to get all Nvidia updates; I was wrong - this resulted to BSOD's and heating problems.

To finally fix this, I did a clean driver installation, and started with the default driver from the ASUS website (more BSOD's with this one), Since It still had BSOD's what I did was to update my driver using the Device manager of windows and upgrade driver's from there, surprisingly, the driver windows found to be latest was Version 359.00. Since then, I never had another BSOD, so far... I won't be upgrading my Nvidia driver again if this version guarantees a stable system.

Hope this helps other people having Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) other than "kernel_security_check_failure" with UX501JW.

JGL

 

The Blue Screens are also a known issue for the VW variant with Intel SkyLake Processors and specific video drivers are available from Intel to remedy it.
I also updated the BIOS to ensure any fixes ASUS performed are in place. (Note that this is for the VW Skylake variant ONLY!)

The latest NVIDIA driver (361.43) ALSO has issues. A Beta "Hotfix" Driver is available, (363.60).

Intel Driver:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...cs-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-10-15-40-6th-Gen-

NVIDIA Beta "Hotfix" Driver:
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3832

ASUS Driver Page for the UX501VW (Note that this is the Page for the Skylake "VW" Model only!;
http://www.asus.com/us/Noteboo...

 

My VW has 353.84, should I just keep this driver until newer ones have been confirmed to work?

 

Well, I updated to the 363.60 I mentioned above and have not had one issue since. However, if you're not experiencing any crashes, I guess there's no point in upgrading. I did the Intel, Nvidia and BIOS updates all at the same time, so admittedly, I'm not sure which one fixed my issues.

 

I do believe that hot fix is outdated, if it's the 361.60? - newest drivers are currently 361.91. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-uk

I feel for you mate, the kernel issue has been bothering me aswell, however I have overcome it, so I can use all drivers now. Notiably there are many reasons why this bsod occurs, but one thing is for sure, the nvidia drivers are always involved try iCafe drivers, they might be of service

 

For anyone interested - I ended up sending the Samsung V-NAND SSD 950 Pro M.2 NVM Express back. I think the SSD was not compatible.

Instead I was able to upgrade the computer with 8 GB Ram and a different SSD.

SO-DIMM 8GB Hynix DDR3-1600 CL11 (512Mx8) LV (1,35V), HMT41GS6BFR8A-PBNA

Samsung 850 EVO Series M.2 2280 SSD - 500GB

(Asus UX501-JW FHD Model with 128 GB SSD and 1 TB HDD)

So far everything works great. One more thing to note is that I recommend installing Windows 10 directly and not doing an upgrade from Windows 8.1. (That's what I did before and ended up with multiple error messages and bluescreens)

 

Strongly considering buying this laptop, the new VW model. Anybody got any cons, reasons why I shouldn't? Is everybody pretty happy with their purchase?

I probably won't buy until the summer, so there's a chance something else will come out by then, but right now I'm between this and the MSi PX60 Prestige.

 

I'm very happy with mine, the bootup with the pcie ssd is nothing short of amazing, from hitting the button til the machine is ready to use it takes 7-8 seconds. That's faster than my Chromebook which is just a browser OS.

Comparing it to my highend Macbook Pro the Zenbook doesn't feel as sturdy or robust, the material it's built out of feels thinner. Wether or not it really is I do not know, but the build quality is still very good compared to other laptops.

The one minor grievance I have are the four air intakes on the bottom, if I have the laptop on my legs they usually get covered and the fans kick in sooner than they normally would. I wish they were further out to the sides (but still on the bottom).

 

Do they seem to kick in even when doing non-intensive stuff like browsing?

One of the reasons I'm looking to replace my 4 year old HP Envy 15 is because it seems to heat up and slow down big time just watching youtube videos for more than 10 minutes or playing a non graphics-intensive game like CK2. It's 4 years old but when I bought it it was close-ish to top of the line, at least for the price range (I believe it was around $1,500 MSRP but I got it on sale at CostCo for around $1,200). it's got an i7 quad and 8GB of RAM, should be able to handle several browsing tabs and some youtube. I'm pretty sure there's a memory leak issue somewhere but I'm not savvy enough to diagnose and fix whatever it is. Or maybe it's just old, who knows.

So if I bought this I'd hope I wouldn't be dealing with the same "fans kicking in while doing pretty much nothing" issue. I do like to sit with the laptop on my legs as there's no room for a desk in my bedroom.

 

For me the fans only kick in when I do some intensive stuff. (GTA5, 3D Modeling or rendering). For normal browsing, videos or even casual gaming (CS:GO) I am not able to hear the fans.

 

Awesome. That's good news. I didn't think it would be an issue with a brand new top of the line ultrabook but, some still have cooling issues so it's good to know.

 

Does anybody else have major throttling problems with the GPU?

Got the new VW model. Started playing GTA V, Fallout 4, Witcher 3 and at some point I saw that the fps is dropping hard. Started EVGA Precision and saw that once the GPU hits 80C, it starts to throttle. The core clock hits down to about 900 MHz in GTA V.

Ran up prime95 to see the how the CPU handles the heat. Like a champ, running prime95 on all threads, it goes about to 85C and the clocks were about 3.0 GHz. Next up was Furmark and same story, once the GPU hits 80C it's starts to throttle. At last it was prime95 + Furmark at the same time. The processor got up to 93C and stayed near 2.7 GHz, so it seems that there isn't a huge throttle limit for the CPU. But at the same time the GPU got killed, still at 80 starts throttling and it went down all the way to 600MHz.

The room temp is normal, 20-21C.

Looking at notebookcheck and mobiletechreviews reviews of UX501JV the throttle limit for both the CPU and GPU seems to be 85-86: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501JW-Notebook-Review.142308.0.html and http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501.htm

Did Asus screw up something in the newer model (VW) because obviously the 80C throttle limit for GTX960M seems too low for this notebook?

 

both models throttle pretty hard, limits are set as low as they are allowed by intel and nvidia, 78c for the GPU and 85c for the cpu - normal limits are 100c for intel and 93c for the gpu. That being said it normally throttles, but much depends on the individual build quality of the specific laptop. I wrote about this, and how to somewhat overcome it, some pages back.

 

Any word yet on the UX501VX?

Not much comes up on Google, except the inclusion / mention of the VX model in the VW marketing blurbs:
https://translate.google.com/transl...ow.php?product_code=0000000049884&prev=search

"ThunderboltR 3 and USB 3.1 into a single C-port! ZenBook Pro UX501VX using the latest IntelR ThunderboltR 3 connection technology, the use of USB C-type ports, provide you with unprecedented flexibility and ultra-fast data transfer speeds - via Thunderbolt 3 up to 40Gbit / s, 10Gbit up via USB 3.1 / s ! Through this amazing technology, UX501VX will provide the ultimate mobile experience, allowing you to be able to fully transfer in a few seconds the largest files. More than that, ZenBook Pro is also equipped with three SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port, equipped with exclusive ASUS USB Charger + technology, compared to a standard USB port, can significantly shorten the charging time required for mobile devices, and even ZenBook Pro off, can be normal operations."

 

Seems you are correct indeed. Saw the new VW notebookcheck review and it throttles at 80C for them as well: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-Pro-UX501VW-Notebook-Review.158762.0.html That's just a real pity.

By overcoming did you mean reinstalling the Windows and all drivers? That was first step when I got the notebook because of the bloatware.

Also I did come to your another interesting post: Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 Owner's Lounge Changing the BIOS settings. So that got me thinking about increasing the thermal cap. But the problem is that for VW BIOS (both 203 & 204) from ASUS: https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-Pro-UX501VW/HelpDesk_Download/ the folder structure doesn't appear: and the second one is that I could only find thermal settings for CPU in the JW BIOS:

Do you think that is even possible?

 

I'm also very happy with my VW but also recognize that the build quality, while visually pleasing, is inferior in reality to all-metal systems like the Mac Book line. However, it's more of a fit and finish type thing. There are no creeks or flex. It feels VERY sturdy compared to the average plastic-clad laptop.

I have also not experienced any throttling. Admittedly, I've only played Homeworld Remastered and a bit of Homeworld Deserts Of Kharak, as well as Battlefield 4 and World of Warships. All played without issues with throttling. However, the laptop MUST be plugged in for me to get decent frame-rates, regardless of how I set the power options.

Which brings me to power options. One of the first things I do after "moving in" to a new laptop is set the power options to "high performance" and I go through and edit the advanced options to my liking. I have ZERO idea if this is why I don't experience any throttling, but it might be worth looking into. I also realize that setting a laptop to performance, which burns though battery, isn't for everyone. Mine is used exclusively at home, so when I want to play, I just plug her in.

And yes, the vent placement sucks ...as it does with all laptops. I use this laptop sitting in my reclining chair at night about 10% of the time and noticed I was smothering it. A quick trip to my local hardware store and an hour in the garage fixed this. I bought a piece of thin but sturdy wood, cut it to the dimensions of the laptop itself, then sanded and finished it. I put this under my laptop anytime I want to play and it's PERFECT. There might be something like this you can purchase pre-built.

So, overall this is the fastest MOST STABLE PC I've ever owned, with a useless and unneeded 4K display.

 

I've have not yet figured out how to raise the throttle caps, but still working on it - it's posible but not simple unfortunatly, I already messed one motherboard, so I'm taking it slowly

I'm running throttlestop at the moment to overcome the cpu throttle, however it requires undervolting and setting a low multiplier to keep the temperatures down below 85c. the GPU will throttle in quite a few ways besides just lowering the clocks, so I had to modify the vbios to lower the clocks and boost to keep it running steady at 75c when running max.

The limits are all hardcoded into the bios and are not easily found on both models, which is why it's a bit difficult to raise the limits themselves, but I will post once i figure it out. But remember all laptops throttle it's just a question of how much and how

 

trust me it throttles whenever the gpu and the cpu are utilized - you may just not notice it. The way throttles come by today is a bit more suttle than before, mostly due to the new "features" that have been introduced to keep heavy throttling to a minimum. check you temps on the cpu and gpu, they hover around 85c on the cpu and 80c on the gpu, but never exceeds. They both throttle quite a lot, but not everybody will notice. all laptops throttle in one way or the other mate

The GPu cannot be utilized fully if not plugged in to the AC, due to the battery not being able to deliver enough power on it's own.

At least you have vents on the VW model

 

Well, what you're saying makes sense. I guess I just don't notice, or maybe the games I'm playing aren't strenuous enough to make it noticeable.

Also, I didn't realize that the non-VW models don't have vents! I can definitely see that being a problem!

However, I'm kind of a do-it-yourself-er. I wonder how hard it would be to remove the bottom cover and use a Dremel Tool to carve out some vents on your own. Could be a worthwhile project...

 

So what I'm gathering is that there's a 501VX model coming soon because it's casually mentioned in the write-up for the VW? Any guesses on when that would be released? Didn't the VW just come out?

 

With what have you modded your vBIOS? I guess with Maxwell II Bios tweaker?

Anybody who is interested in modding their BIOS for CPU OC or vBIOS for GPU OC, then there is quite nice tutorial at overclock.net: http://www.overclock.net/t/1493245/...dia-gtx-670mx-custom-vbios-overclock-tutorial

Remember that it was written for GTX 670MX, but all the steps are pretty much the same expect you have to use Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker instead.

Have you changed the Temp. target?:

 

Yes I used maxwell bios tweaker, and basicly the same approach as in your link.. there are however a few thing one should be aware of before atempting this; 1) your bios will not be original size, and therefore will prove difficult to upgrade or restore (can be done though), 2) your garanti will not likely cover issues related to this (yes I allready bricked one motherboard ).

The way Asus has implemented the vbios in the bios is not straight forward, and some elements have been merged, hence not accessible from the vbios itself, one of these things are the temp limits unfortunately. Now i'm not saying it isn't worth it, it is my system stabil without throttles, stutters and anything else - people just need to be carefull about what they dive into and be aware of the potential concequences

 

Hey all, I'm in the market and this Zenbook hits all the right stuff I'm interested in, but reading these pages it seems like there might be a number of issues.

I'm curious if you were in my shoes if you'd still get the Asus or if you'd go for an XPS 15 like this which is very similarly priced but probably less prone to issues

 

the XPS15 is way worse than the zenbook in these areas, specially on the throttling. There's really nothing to be too worried about all laptops that try to achieve a lot of power combined with a slim and quiet design are prone to these issue - even the macbook and others.

 

Well, forums are almost exclusively a place where people come to solve issues not arbitrarily praise a product. I would bet that the XPS15 forums are very similar.

That said, the ASUS VW version, which I can speak to, is an excellent machine. It's very very very fast, stable and good looking.
My only regret is the 4k screen. This would apply to all 4k laptops. It's just an unnecessary, pointless liability. It's gorgeous yes, but running older games and apps (and some newer ones) is a royal pain in the rear. There are scaling issues everywhere. Even programs you'd think would be designed to work with the latest hardware (such as Logitech's gaming mouse software) doesn't scale. (I literally have to use the "Magnifier" tool in accessibility options to make changes to the mouse software, as it's entire interface shows up about the size of a credit card on the screen).
But, as with everything tech, the industry will eventually catch up and the software will become more and more scale-able.

If the specs of the machine meets your criteria, I'd say go for it.

 

Does anyone know where the "ASUS In search of incredible" bootlogo is stored? I think it's stored somewhere in the bios but I don't really know. This UEFI thing is really new to me...

Edit: Does Asus MyLogo (included in AI Studio) work in this laptop? Scratch that. Doesn't even install it.

 

Hey, guys. I posted here before about this issue, but I also had a question.

Does no one notice that the window maximize animation is not smooth?

When you want to maximize a full window, the animation is horribly choppy/stutter-y.

Is this just me? I have the 4K screen 501JW from summer 2015.

Have any of you noticed the stutter when maximizing a fullscreen window. This is also seen when you press the task view button with a window open.

This other laptop that is 3 years old doesn't have the problem. The animations are butter smooth on that one.

I would really appreciate a response.

 

Have you updated the Intel Video drivers? (This differs from the Nvidia drivers).
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...cs-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-10-15-40-6th-Gen-

Also, have you tried turning the windows animations off? When switched off, the laptop 'feels' allot faster.