Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 Owner's Lounge

I completely agree, I'm not the one running lower power plan options, but you are right 99% will disable turbo on the processor and should in many cases be adequate for this design. However, as asus and many other vendors have introduced a feature for disabling turboclocks on the CPU when both the CPU and GPU are in use, it kinda invadlidates the point. The reason for throttlestop is rather to ensure highest posible clocks under load - but at the moment they are the same for me at least as it will thermal throttle otherwise, due to thermal level being so low.

And no you shouldn't be doing so in a well designed laptop at this pricerange - it however is needed if you want to avoid thermal throttling of both GPU and CPU.

 

i bet the first thing that will fail on the ux501 and g501 are the hinges.
cheap plastic screw points.

check out the hinge mount on the other newer asus light gaming notebook... k501ux

 

I got my laptop back from service (with tickiling sound issue)/

They changed motherboard and now it is silent!

 

I have upgraded to windows 10 and well, it's pretty good so far. One thing to mention is that 4k on windows 10 is pretty laggy with the standard allocated amount of memory on the hd 4600, so i recommend you to upgrade the amount of allocated ram trough the bios to 512 mb to make it a TON smoother.

For the rest it works pretty smoothly.

One thing to mention tho. ux501jw has a hd 4600 and an iris pro variant, so if you got the iris pro variant then you won't need to upgrade the ram i guess

 

Very interesting! I've updated the BIOS to 206, but I cannot see the NVMe configuration entry in the bios. My laptop is UX501VW-FI016T built 2015-12 and came with bios 203. Did you install SM951 after then you can see the NVMe configuration entry?

 

@Biao,

Our laptops are identical down to the manufacture date. There's no reason why mine works and yours would not work.

All I did was update the bios to 206. When I later got the SM951, I put it in and it was immediately recognized. Or , maybe, this just works for the SM951, not the 950 Pro yet.

 

is there a bios hack to make the keyboard brighter?

 

Is this from standard usage? I'm using a 6 year old ASUS G51J-A1 and the only wear you can see on it is the raised points on the F and J keys being worn down to nothing. No hinge issues whatsoever...though I haven't looked much into the construction of the chassis.

 

anyone here able to connect 2 external monitors via thunderbolt and hdmi, and extend desktop to all 3 screens?

Someone who bought the g501 twin couldn't get all 3 screens to light up simultaneously.

I don't have a thunderbolt adapter, so I can't test this.

the asus product page says it can drive dual 4k externals.

 

Thanks JohnnyEM. I've tried again this morning, but no luck!

 

Thank you, I have also since upgraded to Windows 10 and glad to say my experience has been similar as well. Except I do not own the 4k version, thus allocating the RAM was not needed. Agreed that the rest works! The upgrade was flawless, only thing I had to reinstall is the Asus Smart Gesture (For trackpad) else the trackpad wouldn't work. Bear in mind there are a few changes to trackpad options to get used to.

 

I almost certainly have to warn all users considering to upgrade to windows 10 that it has MAJOR optimus issues.

The lag I have been experiencing as well as many others is due to the constant switching if igpu to dgpu in windows 10.

This does not occur on windows 8.1 so please be wary of windows 10

 

Btw, can anybody give me the standard wallpaper of the ux501jw?

Much appreciated

 

I can only be adviced to upgrade to windows 10 and then followed by a complete reinstall of win10- there are many issues in the upgraded versions - particularly in the drivers.

 

Reinstalled twice, doesn't work.

 

Not sure where this question will end up but here goes... Absolutely love my UX501VW, however I cannot get the back off to upgrade ram, it seems to be stuck at the back where the hinge is. Does anyone have any suggestions please? Also has anyone had an issue with graphic cards failing? Thanks in advance K

 

there are two screws behind the two back feet, you have to remove the rubber feet before you can acces them. Don't know if you are aware that is only posible to upgrade one stick of RAM as the other one is soldered.

With a fresh windows copy and not OEM ? what drivers are you using - I experience no lag?

 

I used both drivers from the intel site and ux501 support page

Installed with fresh copy twice

 

This is exactly how my UX501 looked when I had to send it in to ASUS for repairs about a month ago. From normal use after buying it in August.

 

Yes, but only if the machine is unplugged from power. I have no idea why this is the case though and tried asking earlier in the thread, but didn't get a response, unfortunately.

 

That makes no sense.
You would think plugging it in would give it more juice to drive 3 screens, NOT unplugged.

Did you email asus and ask why this happens?

In windows, we should be able to see 3 screens in the display settings.
Is that not the case?

 

damn that fuggin sucks.

So not even 6 months of use.

How many times do you open and close the notebook each day on average?

Eventually, when warranty expires, you'll have no choice but to put screws through the lid........

 

i just found your previous post.

Someone said to try to plug the laptop into a different plug outlet. There's electrical interference

 

any of you guys have external speakers plugged into the 3.5mm jack?

when you shutdown the computer, do you still have loud static noise from the external speakers?

 

Update:

Reverted to windows 8.1. Now everything is back awesome again, boots in 3 seconds, shuts down in 2, everything is snappy and so on again.

So i can confirm that windows 10 is the culprit.

 

no and this is killing me!! I've tried with the thunderbolt adapter and usb3.0 to HDMI adapter. I have the ux501vw and no way in hell it can run dual 4k monitors. It could barely handle 1 external 4k monitor plus the laptop screen. It couldn't handle video player on one screen and web browsing on the other. I have had to reduce resolution to 1080p. so disappointed.

If anyone has a fix on getting all 3 screens to work, it would be most helpful! asus help was worthless.

 

i have the identical g501vw.

I find it hard to believe that it can't do basic tasks like web browsing. It's not even gpu intensive

 

Having intense flickering issues in certain conditions. Video recorded:

Model is UX501VW-FJ044T (2016-01 build) - Nordic (Swedish) version.

tl;dr: So far seen this only running speed test at Swedish speed test site bredbandskollen.se using Microsoft Edge. IE11 and Chrome works fine.

- New and older driver tested, including Intel's beta drivers.
- Windows Update, obviously.
- Update BIOS to 206.
- Increase graphics VRAM from 32 to 512MB

None of the above resolves the issue.

Forcing Windows to use Nvidia GPU for Edge is a workaround, however consumes much more battery.

Any ideas welcome.

 

What model do you have? I am fairly sure that the motherboard will not accept DDR4 ram but "only" DDRL SDRAM. Besides dualchanneling with diffent RAM technologies with different speeds is not advisable - if it is even posible ? The difference between DDR4 and DDR3L in this laptop houldn't make any difference - as I believe to recall the motherboard not being able to handle any more than 1833Mhz on the RAM, hence making DDR4 imposible and unnecessary.

That is a very wierd problem, it only happens on that site with Edge? - it might be a compatibility issue with Java or Edge is broken. If nothing else causes this issue it's highly unlikely a drivers issue.

 

Unfortunally after i got my VW back from service (motherboard change) the buzzling noise soon returned.

Does that mean that ASUS does not how to solve it? I don't really know what to do now.


The model seemed to be so good but this buzzling sound and random clicks really irritate users...

 

I understand that this noise bothers you and you have every right to want it fixed after spending so much on a laptop, but I have to add that it doesn't bother me at all. It's coil whine and is the result of the design of the cooling system. I don't think they will be able to fix it with out redesigning it.

 

Sad to hear, I got my hope up after your first reply, so it is really bad news :/
I have returned three UX501VW with the noise problem, and I wont get another one...

I would say it has to do with the clock of the CPU, I downloaded CPU-Z and listened to the computer during light use, every time the clockspeed changed, the computer made a noise, but that is details

--------

Regarding how bothered people are with the noise, and my advice for others:
I would say that if you have not planned on using it in a quiet environment, it wont bother you. If you have bad hearing, it wont bother you. If you are not bothered by spening 1500-2000 Euros on a computer with coilwhine it wont bother you. It really boils down to how easily bothered you are.
I am quite easily bothered by things in general

Other than that, it is a fantastic machine, super fast and responsive, the screen is super glossy tough.

-------

Regarding the FHD panel, I was correct in my calculations of the frequency of the pwm, according to this review the frequency is 200Hz below 90% brightness

 

Yes, indeed very weird. This is the 3rd laptop with defects I've received in the past couple of weeks. Time to switch brands. I've probably spent $20k+ on Asus stuff the past couple of years. No more.

 

I dont know what to tell ya. I have an ASUS PB279Q 27" 4k monitor. If I have both the laptop monitor and external monitor running at 3840x2160 everything slows down like crazy. I've used HDMI 2.0 straight to HDMI port and using the thunderbolt converter.

The laptop is brand new and I run everything lean and clean. If I even run a video off my hhd on the laptop monitor and try to browse web on the external monitor, its bad. sucks man. sucks I can't figure out how to run dual external monitors. sucks even more I have to dumb the resolution down to 1080.

Would love some help from anyone who can show me otherwise!

 

do you know if the geforce is driving the panels, or the intel?

run gpu-z and see if the gpu is being used.

 

oh god dumbass Asus replaced the End key with the power button.

i have to turn off the numpad to use End key. how annoying.

is there a way to remap without limiting the power button in case the pc locks up?

in my old asus notebook, sometimes I have to hold the power key to hard shutdown, and if you remap the power button, you may not be able to shutdown, especially since the battery is not removable.

 

Hold down Shift and press numpad-1 for the end key. Works of course for all the numeric keypad keys, without the need to toggle numlock.

 

In case someone got too irritated with the old hard drive sound coming from the middle of the laptop (the sound is clearly heard when working on silent environment), here is quick workaround which worked for my ASUS UX501VW - FI109R laptop:

1. Right click on battery and go to Power Options.
2. Click on "Create a power plan" link on the left to create new plan based on your current plan.
3. Select new plan and go to "Change plan settings" and then "Changed advanced power settings"
3. Scroll to Processor power management and expand sub nodes.
- Specify 5% for "Minimum Processor State" for both battery and plugged.
- Set "System cooling policy" to "Passive" for both battery and plugged.
- Set "Maximum processor state" to "50%" for both battery and plugged.

This will limit CPU to just 50% of its maximum, so you will get lower performance, but it resolved the issue with the hard drive sound.
Now I switch to this plan when working in silent environment and not needing full laptop performance and can switch back to original power options plan to get full performance.

I am not quite sure on the core issue however, my suspect is either higher CPU voltage causes this sound or there is a separate light CPU fan which is always on, when power plan allows maximum CPU, though did not dig into my laptop to confirm.

 

hii, i would like to buy the ux501 soon, i choose the 1080p display model, i dont find info how good is the display in the model of 1080p?

 

Does anyone know if the ux501jw will take the 16GB ram module? I'm looking at this particular RAM here.
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Singl...rue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

By the way, Im not sure of how to properly test a screen for color accuracy and response times. But it was mentioned within the last 10 pages about how the 1080p screen is for real world usage.

 

Posted about it some pages ago, anyways:

UX501VW FHD uses the screen panel: 156HL01-104

Here is a german review of the G501VW FHD model, it has the same panel.
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Asus-G501VW-FY081T-Notebook.161346.0.html

Unless you speak german, use google translate

 

i have the 1080p panel on my g501vw and it's super bright.
brightest screen I own

that review says 97% sRGB and 63% adobe RGB
is that good?

 

thank for the reply, 156HL01-104 is a good panel? better then LG Philips LP156WF6-SPB5?

 

For anyone interested - in case you are running into the same problem as me:

Liquid damage onto keyboard does not directly mean the laptop is a brick now. There is a protective layer under the keyboard (You can see a black plastic sheet when you screw it open).
However - any liquid on the keyboard contacts can corrode over time. You will most likely want to replace the keyboard completely - however it is not very easy to find many replacement parts for this new-ish model.

I had to send my laptop back to Asus (took about 2 weeks). And it costs about 170 €. (Still better than buying a new laptop)

 

Does anyone know, if it would be possible to upgrade the 4 cell battery in some European versions to the 6 cell battery found in the US models?

 

Hey guys! Newcomer here, although I've been reading the site and the forums for a while before deciding last month to buy the UX501JW with the 4750HQ cpu, 16gb ram, 512 ssd, FullHD matte display and the 6cell battery. I never thought about buying the 4k display model because gloss screens make life difficult and for performance/compatibility reasons. I bought it from FNAC in France for about 1450 euros. It was actually the 3rd model that I bought!

Initially, I bought the UX501VW with the 256GB for 1100 euros, but it produced the whining noise that was terribly annoying imo especially in quiet/bureaucratic places, so I returned it and bought a UX501JW with the 128gb+1tb with the 4cell battery. But I didn't like that machine neither because the 1tb HDD was ridiculously slow and noisy by itself and to make matters much worse, battery life was hideous, less than 3 hours doing office work! So i returned that one too and was contemplating buying the UX501VW model with the 512gb and either hope for the best or get used to the coil whine. However, when with an employee I checked the online inventory of the shop, I saw that they had brought 1 unit of the UX501JW model with the 512gb for about 70 euros more than the equivalent UX501VW model. So, without a lot of thought and imagining that the UX501JW medils would soon become extinct, I bought it there and then.

And I have been very happy with my purchase ever since! It's beautiful with its slim design and silver colour, powerful and quiet for most of the time, and with a little help from throttlestop for undervolting the cpu and creating some customized profiles, I get always about 5+ hours of battery life with browsing, office and some music streaming, and I'm perfectly satisfied! Maybe, if the overall size of the laptop was smaller, by reducing some bezels along with the space around the touchpad, it would be even better, but anyway.


- Someone was in search of a key remapping program. I've been using for a couple of weeks now a utility named Sharpkeys to switch functions between the F11-F12 keys and make them into Volume down-up and it works great!

- For the default ASUS wallpapers that were requested by another user, I uploaded them to photobucket along with the wallpapers I currently like and use (and I don't change wallpapers often when I find something that I like).
The link is here: http://s406.photobucket.com/user/Feregorn/library/Uploads

 

Hey guys, I have the 501VW model and I was wondering if anyone knows how to make the F1-F12 keys use multimedia key first? So I don't have to hold down the function key to use the volume or screen brightness buttons, etc. I looked in mobility center but the option isn't there. Will it be something I have to do in the BIOS? And if so, what key do I press to open the BIOS? Haven't had to go in there yet on this computer, only had it for a couple weeks.


EDIT: I've been doing some more googling and it looks like ASUS for some reason offers no Fn Lock functionality of any kind, is that true? Seems like a really weird decision. I almost never use F1-F12 keys for any reason, but I use the multimedia keys all the time. Every other manufacturer seems to have an option of some kind to invert the F1-F12 keys except ASUS.

 

is there a good keyboard membrane you can put over the keys that won't hinder typing speed?

I also find that a lot of dust probably gets under the keys, and it will be a b*tch to clean. Using a blower will only lodge the dust further into crevices.

Is this keyboard removable?

 

Apologies if repeated, I just unpacked the 501UV pro US version. running some Premiere Pro I noticed using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility that the cpu was being power throttled well below 45watts (i.e. Package TDP at 30-35 watts); this happened both unplugged and plugged and even just restarted (I mention this as I had issues with a XPS 15 that when waking up it will limit itself). is this an ASUS bios setting? (I read here about thermal throttling)