M50Sv: Review & Owners' Lounge

Just wondering, are the windows XP users using the vista ATK drivers and utilities or have you installed the xp-specific ones from the asus website?

 

Sup guys! Just got my M50SV-A1 last week and so far I like it a lot. I do have a quick question though. I tried to hook up my computer to my Samsung Plasma, so I could watch a movie on my TV. I hooked an HDMI cable from my computer to one of the ports on my TV, then I pushed Fn+F8( I think it's F8). The a picture comes on the screen that says HMDI. I press Fn+F8 again and another picture says LCD+HDMI (or something like that). However, no picture ever comes on my TV screen. The Samsung just says Weak or no signal. Is there something else I'm supposed to do?

 

That is weird smokey, I actually have played on my friend's tv which is Sharp Aquos and all I did was press FN+F8.

when using both LCD and TV I cannot display over 1440x900, but when TV only, I can put 1080p easily.

Penumbra Black Plague on 1080p 42 inch screen and dolby surround sound.... amazing stuff.

 

Yea, I don't get it. I thought I just had to press FN+F8 once and the Computer LCD would flicker off and my TV would flicker On to show my desktop, but nothing happened.

 

How about when using Nvidia settings to change the display output

 

I tried messing with the NVIDIA settings last night, but nothing really worked. I'll try agian when I get home from work again tonight. I haven't updated the NVIDIA drivers yet. Could that be it? If you think that is why, what should I do to upgrade them? (I'm not too advance with computers/drivers and such.)

 

You can download the graphics drivers from laptopvideo2go.com. Make sure you download the modded .inf file and replace it with the original (its only a matter of cut and paste, not difficult at all).
Try use this driver
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19001
This is the newest driver for Vista and was released by Asus.
Open and extract the driver folder. Paste the modded .inf into the folder (windows will prompt you a message saying if you want to replace the exisiting inf file.. just click yes/ok). Then run the Setup.exe and you should be done. Your notebooks may ask you to restart a couple times after that.

 

What is the best driver for the 9500 GS?

 

175.80 is the best driver

 

as to gddr2 vs gddr3 check tomshardware memory speed performance comparisons- less then 5% benefit at the outside going with the faster type, and furthermore given that the chipsets in this model have a limited memory bus width(64bit vs 128bit or greater) the bottleneck is in the chip design rendering the memory speed mostly irrellevant, at least for te nvidia gpu's noted here(8600/8400/9500). not sure on th ati variant, as the one offerred isn't based on the x2600 core.


the acpi_irq_holder is advanced computer power interface interrupt request holder. irq's are what one piece of hardware sends to get the attention of another. power management interface to hold them? seems obvious- intended to delay/prevent/or store requests until certain power states or load states are reached as opposed to pushing the hardware harder to save power, or remember system hardware states when doing things like entering sleep or hibernation, so they may be fully resumed to the same point afterwards.

as to the ati/nvidia debate- if you do commercial apps like solidworks etc, the softmoddability of the 9500gs and its performance inpact on such apps should make it a clear winner. additionally if you run emulators for things like ps2/xbox most of them are written for nvidia gpus only. further considering the poor business performance of amd(which owns ati presently), and the rate of driver releases between ati and nvidia, you will get the better stable performance in the near term from ati for general use, and the better support for specialized uses from nvidia(with the notable exception of the hd acceleration inbuilt to the ati line, which is one of its main selling points according to amd/ati ).

as to the hole on the outside of the display panel that matches one on the inside. - array microphone. reversible camera. the mic is actually more than one microphone so software can eliminate background noise and interference better, and it also makes recording both video and audio of things on the other side of the notebook from its user feasible without an additional microphone .


to the people looking for more drivers for xp on this model, please go looking about in asus public support forum(need to register your notebook with them), i'll post it later if i get a chance(and remember ), but there is a thread fro xp drivers where a certain female mod has answered and listed xp drivers from various models they have that will work for the m50sv in xp(amusingly no redundant links for vista drivers ).

as to the low volume- yes this sucks. i tried equalizer settings, and environments before i remembered how they work. you lower the max volume from the hardwares absolute and use variances in that free range between the soft maximum and hardware maximum volume to simulate the environment, so without an additional hardware amp at the endof the chain you effectively lose volume. the hdaudio is mostly software here, so environments cut volume output, AND dolby 5.1 emulation cuts volume output. disabling both got me (if i can trust the software reading via the inbuilt mic) ~20db volume increase. try it, might be faster as well having cut out a couple software dsp routines.

as to the fellow with the not x64vista app- this is the price you pay for going x64 for that extra ~512 ram, and about the only thing i can recommend is using vmware and setting up a virtual copy of xp32/vista32 to run your app.
theres a free vmware player, and a few tutorials on setting up virtual machines with it(so you don't have to pay a small fortune to buy the full app).

other- its funny how they included an svideo>composite type adapter but no hdmi cable, in spite of the lack of composite OR svideo connections on this notebook

anyone else notice it will refuse to charge the battery if it is less then 5% below full? thats kind of a neat battery longevity saving feature, but can be a tiny bit of a pain given the notebooks full charge life isn't so great. anyone know of a workaround?

heh ok that's it for me for the moment..

 

I've been waiting about a month to say this .... I'm getting mine next week!

 

Congrats!!! I'm sure you'll love it like the rest of us

 

Emporiumboutique,

Man, I have windows XP cd. How do I install this OS on this laptop.. I've never done this before.. complete noob here.
Maybe you can PM me? I would really appreciate the help from some one who knows what they're doing!

Hope to hear from you soon!

 

You can follow the 'XP downgrade guide' here for explicit instructions. But to briefly summarize what you'll be doing.....

Before installing XP, I highly suggest you backup your Vista recovery partition on to a DVD. Back up all other important documents and download all the XP drivers from pg 77 of this thread on to a DVDs (you will need several DVD, more if you have lots of personal data). I would also go ahead and download an antivirus (such as AVG) and firewall (such as zonealarm) program and burn that on a disk as well. That way, you don't have to worry about getting viruses while downloading them from your clean XP install.

Follow all the instructions from the website below to install XP
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_pro_install_-_graphic.htm

Install all drivers
Install antivirus & firewall
*at this point you can connect to the internet more safely*
Update windows and your antivirus software
Copy all your personal data back onto your hard drive

The whole process is pretty straight forward but will take about 2-3 hours

 

Thanks.. so i go into My computer and create a back up disk right?

I have a pretty big thumb drive can I put all the drivers and back up files on the thumb drive? I'm not too excited on the prospect of having to buy DVDS right now.

 

I forget what the recovery partition size was, but I think it's about 5-6gb. The size for all the drivers is about 500-600mb, so you could put the drivers on the thumb drive without any problems. A DVD is still highly recommended to copy the recovery partition, but if you're absolutely 100% sure you will not be using vista in the future, then you don't have to copy it.

 

Well, I just got my M50sv-A1 today, and it's pretty nice, but some items concern me:

I can't find any brand laptop w/ the sound quality of my present 5-year old Toshiba notebook with harman/kardon speakers. I tried an XPS 1530 and the sound was atrocious. I had hoped that w/ the altec lansings built into the M50, it would be far better. While it is superior to the 1530, it's still quite inferior to the harman/kardon in my Toshiba. Listening to mp3s on this notebook is actually sort of depressing because of how used to my normal notebook speakers I am. The sound is just hollow - like an AM/FM radio in a beat-up old 1970's Ford pickup. I know there have been posts in this forum about increasing volume, but I don't know how much can really be done for the quality.

The other thing is the volume control. I really wish there were another hardware method for changing volume besides the multimedia touchpad. If I need to lower or kill volume quickly, my option is to hit the mode button and use the touchpad, or fn+hotkey. I guess what I wish was for some sort of radial dial.

Oh well, those are the two things - not much to complain about, but the sound quality is definitely a big disappointment to me, especially after reading the rave reviews here. I think the problem is that I'm just trained to the quality of the harman/kardons in my Toshiba.

 

Just get real speakers if you want good sound quality.

 

Actually, a good friend of mine also has a 5 year old Toshiba w/ the harman/kardon speakers. It's a satellite 15 incher (forgot the exact model), but I didn't find the sound superior to the altec lansing speakers on the M50Sv. In fact, it wasn't as crisp as the m50sv. Try messing around with the audio environment settings. It should help.

As for the volume control radial dial, I have to agree that's quite useful and convenient. I had a Toshiba Tecra M2 and loved that feature. Unfortunately, after about 2 years of use, the dial will produce static noise everytime when in use.

 

Hey, I'd like to thank you all for being the final deciding factor in pruchassing this beast-of-a-machine form ASUS. More to the point, EmporiumBoutique, Gear2Play and GenTechPC and all of you resellers, owners and hard core geeks(said in jest) , my many thanks for the 100+ pages of information.

 

No problem We're all just here to help and share our own experiences

 

I guess I'm lucky I haven't had any static issues w/ my volume dial.

Did you have to tweak your audio settings out of the box to make it sound better than your friend's Toshiba speakers? Right out of the box was horrible, and all the environmental presets I've tried in the Realtec HD audio manager (live, rock, bass) don't seem to help. They all change the sound, but none make the sound less hollow, if that makes sense.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

That did the trick. Thanks soooo much man for all your help!

 

Did you try the different equalizer settings from the drop-down menu next to the 'Rock' button? Also try the different preset environment settings too.

no problem

 

Just wanted to say i am a new proud owner for a M50sv-A1 thanks to Ken and GentechPC. Great service from them and couldn't ask for anything more from them.

Loving the PC, first night of tinkering with it, getting everything updated and getting used to Vista. Felt it was time to make the jump from the old dell and it was well worth it.

 

Picked up my M50SV today from Penta Computers. Still just fiddling with it, but so far looks good.

 

hey guys, i got a little problem here... my battery is showing 0% all the time - even when i'm charging it.



anybody have any solution?

Edited : has been solved

 

Is there a way for me to change what the top 4 buttons do? Specifically the right-most (media player) one?

 

I've been having some problems with the 175.80 drivers, aka BSODs, does anyone know of any other drivers that are more stable?

 

anybody has personal photos of this machine?
thanks

 

Hi koflok, can you post what you did to solve your problem? This may help other people with similar problems

Yup... read link below
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=150016

Yes, they're in my review... link in sig.

If you're using Vista:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19001
or
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18050

If XP:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19000
or
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17739

 

Chipmonkey, I have been using the 175.70 drivers and havent had a single BSOD so far. The only BSOD I ever had was when my brother plugged in his ipod shuffle and tried to repair it.

Is there much difference from 175.70 to 175.80? I am so far being happy with my current drivers that I havent bothered to install the newer ones.

 

i just used system restore and everything's back to the way it was.

the only problem i have now that i still can't figure out is the RivaTuner
i'm overclocking my vga, but sometimes my rivatuner won't accept the selected settings.
when i move the slider to change the clocks (600 for example) and then apply and OK, the settings go back to deafult (core clock on 475).

anybody have same problems or solution.

anyway, i'm using the 175.80 drivers and vista sp 1

 

ok
1) the audio. try setting use virtual dobly 5.1 to off. also consider changing the checkbox for "fullrange speakers" front right/left to unchecked. these puppies just don't handle deep bass or even equalizer upped bass.

2)with the 0% battery try removing the battery and checking the nothings gotten into the space where it makes contact with the notebook, either the contacts or anything that might be causing it not to seat well, and reinserting it. failing with that end of things, when you disconnect power does the notebook simply die or does it start emergency shutdown? if it has the power to perform a shutdown due to critical battery levels, then obviously its got a serious calibration issue, in which case i advise looking a couple pages back for the battery calibration guide. if, however, it simply dies when mains power is disconnected and there's nothing preventing good battery contact it would have to be a defect. luckily it being an asus, theres all kinds of good warranty options automatically, not to mention it sounds like a recent purchase so exhanging the unit may be a option.

>so the batery life extending software features i noted earlier with the"refuses to charge if charge more then 95%" was the culprit -strange

3) what exactly do you want to see pictures of that haven't been posted yet?

4) the 175.80 drivers > hmm first question are you using them for the quadro softmod or just the 9500 series outright?
if its the softmod try redownloading the drivers and reinstalling them, if you are using them normally for the 9500 series then try 175.63 theres a fellow in the laptopvideotogo forums who has been having similar issues with all the revisions since 175.63 ("nekron" or somesuch, anyhow worth a try), although i think if its less "bsod" and more "graphic driver had to restart" you might want to look at your gpu temps. as i said elsewhere this things rock stable when its all put together to spec, but has some manufacturing quality control issues that are best caught outright and replaced that seem to hold it back in user experience.

5) congrats to all the new owners be sure to put it through some stress testing and address any issues asap. even with little things this is a great system, but without them its truly amazing.

 

Try different drivers. Some drivers don't allow overclocking of the GPU and the slider returning back to the default settings is what happens.

 

I know m GPU was maxing at around 82 so I'm pretty sure it's not a heat issue I'll try the ones emporium posted and see how those work.

 

Well, i see that it comes with i case but i was wondering if the case is any good because i want to buy one but if it is decent then i would rather save the money.

 

The case is made by Targus, and it's pretty decent. I would try it out first before buying a new case/bag.

 

okay another problem.. (why is mine is full of "problems")
it's about the processor speed..
it keep going up and down... mine is running on 2.7 GHz.. but sometimes (by seeing cpuz) it's 1.3 GHz...
i know there's such thing as Speedstep.. but shouldn't it working when the laptop is not working...
in my case.. i have loads of programs runnning, such as games, installation, etc..
here's what i'm talking about.

so, any idea? it used to be just fine.. it's very very annoying.
thx

 

What is your power4gear setting?

 

i uninstalled the power4gear.. but on my current battery power options, it's on high perfomance.
should i install the power4gear software to make it 2.7Ghz all the time?

 

I actually get the exact same clock speed AND voltage as you when I unplug my power and run on 'battery saving' setting.
I think you should try install p4g and see if that will solve the problem.

 

tried p4g.. not work...
don't know why. i turn off my laptop for,like, 1 hour and when i turn it on, it becomes alright. the clock speed stays at 2.7Ghz

btw isn't battery saving allows only ~50% of performance?
tried it once and i got BSOD because of the overclock.. lolz

 

Hey has anyone tried using thunderled? I got vista x64 installed with mozilla thunderbird. But for the life of me I cant get the LED to work with thunderled.

 

That's quite weird... how are your CPU temps? How about if you OC to 2.6ghz? do you still get bsod then?
I'm actually getting weird readings myself with CPU-z.
Although I OC'ed my CPU to 2.7ghz, sometimes it would hit 2.9ghz. Though I never had a bsod.

 

Ken, most of these links are dead.

 

On my M50SV the HDD came partitioned, and I don't like it too much. There is a 7.81 GB hidden section labeled Primary Partition, which I assume is important so I'll leave it alone. Then a 116.44 GB section labeled VistaOS, this came setup with my OS and other files, so this is the partition I've been using. Now here is the partition I'd like to combine to VistaOS, it's labeled DATA and it's 08.63. As of now it is 100% empty, and it's just going to be an inconvience when I use up VistaOS, or set up a dual boot for Ubuntu.

So what would the recommended program be to combine these? I know in XP they had a wizard to work on partitions but I'm not so sure on vista.

 

I used GParted on an Ubuntu live disk to resize my partitions...

now its a 75GB Vista and 150 GB Data partition, with 22 GB free on the Vista and 53 GB free on the data

 

Alright, I guess I will take care of it the same tme I download Ubuntu

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-gparted-to-resize-your-windows-vista-partition/

look there for some info, including how to make a repair disc