M50Sv: Review & Owners' Lounge

just recieved my m50 and i must say this thing looks amazing, im very happy i cancelled my alienware m15x for this, the quality is unmatched. Where can i get the best performance drivers for my ati mobility radeon hd3650? im looking to play cod4 and age of conan

 

ok. another noob question, i just did the clean install of vista but i choose install os over the entire drive. should i have partitioned it? and would it boost system performance to have my hd partitioned and keep all my music files on one side and the os and system files on another? if i'm gonna change it, now would be the time. thanks for any info

 

I have multiple partitions on mine. OS at its minimal size requirements, and a couple others. That way when I take images, or backups, I am only taking it of the OS and settings, and not enire HD. That way it doesn't take as much space on my external HD.

 

I strongly recommend keeping your data on a separate partition from the OS. For many reasons, the ones mentioned by screech113 included.

 

sweet, thanks for the info...gonna redo the install now

 

Try http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

Partitioning your HDD will probably give you some performance boost. However, most people who partition their HDDs are usually more interested in multi-booting setups and/or security measures (ie isolating files that are corrupt. Files that are store in one partition won't affect other partitions).

 

so for instance if i wanted to install linux on the other drive i could do that? and one more kinda dumb question...is it possible for a virus to jump partitions? so if i have all my music on a separate partition, do i need to scan that partition every time i run a virus scan?

 

Yup, you can install one OS on one partition and another OS on a second partition.

Sure, a virus can jump from partition to partition, especially if the virus attacks the boot sector.

 

Yes you could install Linux.
Yes a virus will jump partitions with no troubles. It's not there that the advantage shows. It shows for instance when the Windows install gets corrupted for some reason. So instead of backing up 100 GB worth of data before you reinstall, you now just reinstall, because the data is safe on another partition.

Or, if you do regular backups (images) of your Windows partition, as an earlier post said, you can do it more efficiently.

 

sweet thanks

 

how do i make the fingerprint reader work after installing a clean copy of vista 32bit, is there a driver, or do i need to find the setting in windows?

 

Drivers, I think. Isn't there a list of drivers somewhere in the early pages of this thread?

 

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb...VT/V2.1.0.880.18_V7.8.1.7/FingerPrints_VT.zip <---Fingerprint drivers

It's under the downloads for the M50sv @ asus.com. Furthermore it's in the Other section. For some reason my computer didn't have it setup when I received it.

I got two M50SV A1's when I just ordered one. Lucky me... well and my wife who sold her brand new Dell 1520 on eBay afterwards.

 

So I checked you Vista Optimizing guide...thanks EBE. Just got a few questions. What is the NB Probe, MultFrame and LifeFrame3, ASUS Virtual Camera, and SmartLogon...any important? And you're sure Live Update and ASUS Wireless Console2 are not needed? And the Screen Saver app...is that just the demo screen saver that's on the desktop after a full install? Thanks for the info.

 

I really like this laptop, but I was wondering if people would suggest getting this one now, or waiting for the new intel platform and see what there is then.

 

Id suggest getting this now since this is a very nice investment. You can wait for the new platform, though I have no idea when that will be. At least for this laptop, you are sure you will get your moneys worth.

 

ok the fingerprint reader works now, but how do i set it up so that you can only use the fingerprint reader to log into windows? because it gives options for my password also, i just want fingerprint access

 

I'm not sure if you can do that. Even with the fingerprint you kind of want a backup. Risking a fingerprint scanner failure or for some reason it just not reading your prints would suck. I see that you're @ U of M. If you were locked out with important work to be done that would really really suck.

I'd take at least SmartLogon from the Asus Suite and reinstall that if I wiped the computer. The webcam login is kind of neat. Just a wow factor type deal.

 

ya it would, i see ur point now lol...injure my finger and im screwed

 

Thats a good point... Didnt think about that scenario. I actually wanted to do the finger print reader only as well...

 

wel if anyone is running the ati or nvidia card, new drivers came out today, the tech told me and sent me the link, you can find it on the asus drivers page for the notebook model u have

 

You should have the option to do both (either use the fingerprint scanner or type the password).

EDIT: if you're using Vista, then you have the additional option of using your camera for face recognition to log into windows

 

Well not really the injury part hehe. You can register all 10 fingers so.... I hope you don't get in that bad of an accident. On my Toshiba the fingerprint reader has a larger surface area, but incorrectly read my finger more often than this one so far.

HaloGod: That 500 gb HDD is one drive? I wonder if the Radeon has the same pin configuration as the 9500 GS. Need to look up real life FPS stats on both cards. Does your machine read all 4gb in Vista? I tried to enable PAE with no luck. Only reads 3071mb (BIOS sees all). Thanks...

Edit: Looked up HDD. Probably a Hitachi drive (single) ?

 

Vista 32bit can only read 3gig as far as I remember. Cant they do something about that?!

 

ok, so i did the clean install of vista. installed all the drivers and some of the apps, and now my computer won't read any other drives. under my computer there's only my C: and D:...no dvd-rom, no flash drive when i plug it in. any ideas?

 

quick question, do all models of the M50sv have turbo cache? I know in vista you can see how much video memory in total you have with turbo cache but I can't find any where in XP telling me this. So I am wondering now this model has the turbocache feature. Thanks.

 

Mine didn't come with TurboCache memory.

 

Don't see new video driver for M50SV on ASUS's site

 

I didn't either that makes two of us. Last update on there was around December IIRC. No harm no foul.

 

You should be able to use the Asus Security Protection Manager to set your logon preferences. I enabled fingerprint or password logon option and it works very well. You could also set it so it demand both option. And when you use it, just make sure to slide your finger assuredly, not quickly.

 

asianrage, how do you set it up to demand both?

also, will we ever be able to upgrade to newer graphic cards in the future since we have mxm?

 

To Ken/everyone: Does the Asus M50Sv-A1 have Intel Turbo Memory 1GB NAND included?Is it possible to include it if doesnt present in the unit? THanks

 

All new Asus models does not comes with Turbo Memory anymore, it's useless since the new laptops performs better without it:



The result was tested on V1S-A1 a while ago:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=156705&page=5&highlight=V1S+benchmark

 

The short answer is no, you won't ever be able to upgrade your GPU. That's the only answer that is practically relevant.

 

I was researching turbocache and thought that with the new drivers it did help a little.... Too lazy to re-research.

 

Guys I need help! I did the clean install of Vista and now im in my desktop. When I put in my Driver CD, an error message appears saying that an invalid argument was encountered!

 

And you got BSOD?

 

what BSOD? Can you explain? Now it says:

suitable OS for this driver disk:
32, 64 bit
Vistabusiness
vistaenterprise
vistahomebasic
vistahomepremium
vistaultimate

What should I do!

 

I just received my M50sv-a1 yesterday afternoon.

My very first impression of the laptop is that it runs very cool to the touch. Compared to the Macbook that I used previously, this is nothing like the Macbook. I think it has to do with a lot of the new processor (Penryn) that the m50 is using and also the exhaust system on the side. The overall quality and build is very solid, the material doesn't feel cheap at all. There are some software that were preinstalled, but it can be uninstalled pretty easily.

The numpad on the keyboard is excellent. I would expect that Asus would compromise the keyboard to fit the numpad. But surprisingly the keyboard is not compromised at all and it measured to be the same length compared to my desktop keyboard.

There is one small thing that bugs me a little. When typing on the keyboard, it misses some of the keys that I press. I don't type that fast, maybe 90-110 wpm and even typing this short message, there are times I miss one or two keystrokes that are normally recognized on a desktop keyboard. I don't know if it is caused by having me not pressing the keys not hard enough. But sometimes the space keystroke is ignored or missed. I will have to look into this and see if it's a problem in the future. If anyone experienced this as well, please let me know too!

The multimedia touchpad is very useful for me. When playing games, it can be enabled to control the brightness and volume. I'm not quite a movie kind of guy, but there are keys for that as well.

So far, I've been using the laptop for a while and I am very impressed with it. It is definitely worth the bucks and probably the best deal you can get for a 15" laptop at its price.

 

Ken! Anybody? Oh no, looks like I have no choice but to recover and install all drivers...

 

Ok, calm down, and explain the situation again. What happened? Did your computer suffer from Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)? Where did you get the Vista disk?

 

Thanks. I wanted to do a clean install of Vista, so I recovered Vista and then when at first it asked for the Driver disk, I turned it off and turned it on again. On the desktop, I then entered the driver disk, but then the setup wont work properly! I hate it but I think I would have to redo everything again and then just enter the driver disk when it asks to...

 

I did that because that would enable me to make sure that I have a clean install of vista without the junk software.... Anyway, you think the Driver CD would work when I do the recover HD and then ill put it in once it asks for the Driver disk? Hopefuly the driver disk is not scrwd up... Sorry guys, just got my laptop and im just a bit flushed right now

 

I think you just need to reinstall Vista. Sounds like the file corruption, or missing system files to me.

Trust me, it happens all the time. I had to reinstall Vista twice on my girlfriend's computer.

 

Can someone with the B1 post the make and model of the blu-ray drive?

 

Seems like it. Anyway, I better look into the bloatware that this thing has and start reinstalling. Do you guys have a link of a guide you might have?

 

for the ati and nvidia drivers, do we use what asus gives us online or should i go use mobility modder or other modded drivers for my ati card for game performance? right now i cant overclock the card, it just downclocks then crashes. I just hope what asus gives us is as good as the latest ati drivers

 

weird, I already setup the vista, reinstalled everything, installed drivers, but now I entered and I have just a command prompt and blue background... ive been waiting for like 10mins already but its still like that... Does that happen when you guys reinstalled?

 

oh btw, anyone who will be playing cod4 on these laptop, enable dual video cards in the game, for some reason it makes it much smoother even though we dont have sli

 

How did you guys turn off the ambient light sensor?