M50Sv: Review & Owners' Lounge

o i didn't even know i could do that..makes sense, seeing as though i put it up...thanks alot EBE

 

don't forget, you ran your 3dmark score while your cpu was overclocked, mine was at stock.

and its 635core, 523 mem.

no issues with focus or clarity for me at all.

from all the reviews and comparisons i've seen, its typically only a very small gain, if any at all for the 64 bit platform, typically between 1-3% improvement.
which isn't much.

i've had great success with vista ultimate x64 on my desktop, can't say i've run into any vista problems... oh wait, first and only issue, one time my external hard drive just disappeared in vista, wouldn't recognize anymore, anywhere, but i plugged it into an xp machine, and it fixed whatever was wrong and it worked fine again.

i've only found 1-2 programs that didnt' have x64 compatibility, registry mechanic and winavi. big woop. all my games run just like x32. so i'm pleased.

definately a large improvement going e-sata over usb2.

i haven't benched it to show you proof, but you can take my word for it, large transfers go dramatically faster, like, 10gigs takes half the time it seems.

however, i haven't been able to set up the esata for hotplug recognition.
so i have to reboot the system and then the drive shows up. oh well..

yeah i've noticed the same crap on mine... using xp sp3, when i try to resume from standby it sometimes works fine, othertimes i have to hard reset.
pretty annoying.
i actually thought it was related me to me changing the power and cpu scheme with rm clock and integrating it into xp.... i'll have to try messing around.. although, it hasn't pissed me off enough yet to really dig deep.

no rmclock 2.35 for vista x64 for me, tried it on my desktop, it isn't supported on that OS---drag.

 

overclocking and undervolting often falls into the 'taboo' section of peoples minds.

there is alot of garbage ideas that people believe without backing it up with proof, and the proof is nearly the exact opposite to what most commonly accept as true.

its all relative to what you are doing. ie, if you overclock, on this notebook, you can't really adjust the cpu voltage, so you wont get very high speeds, and the extra strain on the cpu will be extremely minimal. ESPECIALLY since you can effectively overclock while undervolting. in my experience, i've overclocked every pc i've had by at least 30-40% if not higher and ran each of them well past 3 years. infact, to this day i've never had a part fail at all because of overclocking.

people always think 'well if you overclock, you'll burn it out quicker' and hence don't even try to get any better performance at all.
the statement is true, in relative use, if you OVERvolt, then you have the CHANCE of burning it out 'sooner', the more heat/volts, the sooner/quicker it will die. and how quickly or how much of an effect it makes is relative to the amount of extra volts/heat is used.

ie, overclocking your cpu at stock volts to 2.8ghz or 3.0ghz will not dramatically effect the life. considering this cpu will last likely 5-10 years, the extra speed MAY and only MAY cause it to die in 4.5-9.5 years IF.

so don't get dismayed over ignorant posters. on notebooks you can't really break something from overclocking
the cpu/chipset and videocard all have preventative measures built into them to shutdown if they get near dangerous heat levels.
and considering the fact you cannot adjust the voltages UP, you are pretty safe to run this bastard as fast as you can get it to run!

there was an article written at www.anandtech.com a while back that was written specifically about the theoretical effects of what overclocking and overvolting can do relating to expected lifetime of a cpu/vid card.
i wish i had the link but their archives suck at looking up.

ENJOY! btw, atitool works great for ati cards
==================

here is my latest shot for extended battery life
i'm now able to get 2 hours 40 mins use.

ambient light enabled, at darkest setting.
wifi/BT disabled
CPU downclocked to 2.0ghz 10x multiplier at .092v
nvidia powermizer enabled.

pretty sweet!

 

And you gets this 2h40min by using just these tricks mentioned above?

========

Urbanos,
Could you post the print-screen with your RM CPU Utility settings,like it's posted below,maybe with a little commentary?I'll be grateful

 

Could everyone, please, avoid posting a long sequence of posts? Instead, put all the information in one longer post. If it would get really long, separate in several -- but not a separate post for every single idea or reply, that clutters up the page.

Thanks.

 

Awesome, thanks for the useful post. I've never overclocked/undervolted before, but I'm pretty good with figuring things out so I've started looking through guides. Once I figure out what settings most people are using I'll try and use those on my M50Sa-AK023C. I plan on undervolting the T9300 processor first, then overclocking to whatever's stable, and then figure out how to use atitool

 

sure, its simpler than you may imagine.
here are three screens for the settings i've used, i put a pink border around the areas of attention.

essentially what I've done is went to the lowest voltage available used for the SuperLFM setting, and took the program OCCT 2.0.0a and set it for a 1 hour loop on CPU stress test.

after about 20 mins i adjusted the PST state up one multiplier, from 6x to 7x, to 8x etc. until finally OCCT reported an error. after i found the highest without error, i left it there for the full hour to ensure it was actually stable.

then i did the same thing, working down, with the highest multiplier, 12x or 13x IDA. from stock volts all the way down to whatever it is in the picture.

a word about IDA. what its meant to do is, when a single threaded app is run, IDA in certain scenarios, will shut off the 2nd core, and up the speed of the first core by a half multiplier or one full multiplier depending on the cpu.

sadly, its very sporadic and hard to predict. so i just disable it, and force both cores to run in the '13x' multiplier. however, they don't stay there, it defaults to 12.5, but in strange ways goes to 13x.
regardless, it is stable all the way, and I've verified, that rmclock does effectively disable the '2nd' core shutdown when its disabled in the advanced settings.
by using the IDA PST, its as if the CPU behaves as if IDA were still enabled, however doesn't disable the 2nd core upon multiplier jump.

the last image, management settings, if you copy what i have, it will intelligently switch between battery/ac for you.

 

Just one question, are you sure that the stock voltages reported by RMClock are actually the correct ones? Like I said earlier on the thread, I have doubts on whether to trust them.

Also, in my experience IDA is still a bit buggy in RMClock.

 

Thanks Urbanos for your "undervolting guide"

Now, this problem don't exist on my m50sv. Emporiumboutique posted such advice:"Try pressing Fn + F8 or F7 if you see a black screen next time you resume from standby" and i did. I just pressed the F7 button when the standby mode was stopping and since that moment the standby mode works just fine even without pressing F7 Try it.

The Ambient light is an automatic mode, so where you set the "darkest setting"?

 

thanks EBE, i think i figured out the multiquote..

as i mentioned before, the RMClock reported voltages are NOT the actual voltages. its complicated, but essentially, RMClock is correctly reporting the 'theoretical' voltages.

if you fire up CPU-Z, you'l find that it reports 'Actual' draw vs. theoretical.

so if you look in the one profile screenshot, you'll see that RMClock says 0.9250v where cpu-z beside it says 1.038. so that shows us that on average, there is a +.1125v boost to theoretical settings. as i mentioned before, this is typical, on desktop systems i've never seen the theoretical match the actual at all. however, its usually the opposite, on desktops the theoretical is more than actual, where on this notebook, its less than actual.

the way you can see that it is indeed an actual difference, is during the stress testing, the temperatures properly reflect an actual voltage change, from stock down to .9250 is over 7-8C difference at 100% load.

you're welcome

even with ambient light sensor on, you can still use the Fn f5/f6 keys to adjust how much output it gives.

 

+ rep to Urbanos for his sharing his wealth of knowledge here.

Awesome dude!

 

Strange,but when i try to apply settings from the first of your screens,my lappy turn off,and after reboot setting are default... other settings are also like on your print-screens

And i don't have the option 0.9250V, just 0.9500V

 

OK QUESTION!

How do you make the screen brighter?
Is there a way you can see how bright your screen is really at? It seems it is brighter right before log in and then goes darker by a little?

When I push the Fn button and click the sun on F5 and F6 it is just for the sensor and I of course moved it all the way up.

Also in the battery settings menu I turned up the brightness, but does not seem to do much of anything?

Is their a monitor setting in a program in the control panel that adjusts it? When I reinstalled Vista it was really bright, but when I loaded the drivers to use the Fn keys it got dim again

 

RIGHT, my guess is you still have IDA enabled in the advanced cpu settings section. try that.

if the system reboots, that means you aren't going through the process of finding the sweet spot, the same cpu can have different results. always test it like i said to be sure it stable.

the way that IDA works it will actually over compensate the 1st core voltage, while the 2nd core is disabled, because it tries to boost the 1st core to the next multiplier.
so when you disable IDA, first it prevents the 2nd core from shutting down, and also lowers the cores voltage values.

yeah its simple, although not documented well.
you can turn off ambient light sensor, by hitting Fn-A
it will get a bit brighter and possibly darker.

 

IDA is disabled and it turns off even at 1.100V
I don't know why my option's list starts from 0.9500V and i can't choose 0.9250... What settings do you use and work fine and stable?

 

Yes, gobi64, don't use Urbanos' voltages "off the shelf". What's good for a CPU may BSOD or freeze another. Test your own voltages, go down in small steps.

Urbanos, thanks for the insight. I may try some more with the Penryn notebook that I have, by using RMClock+CPU-Z to monitor the voltages. Although, it's pretty cool as it is, so maybe I'll spend the time doing something else (equally geeky )

 

Yah you need to find how low your own processor can go, mine won't go any lower than 1.0125 for the x12 multiplier without BSOD's. I would suggest looking at flipfire's undervolting guide, it's very thorough.

here it is btw http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

 

How can i return to default voltage after testing undervolting?Do i have to set "no management" in "Profile selection" or something more? What's standard, manufactured voltage for AC Power and Battery mode (T9300)?

 

You need to press the "Defaults" button on the Profiles page.

I don't know the voltages. They will not differ between AC power and battery, they will depend only on the multiplier the CPU is running at.

From your questions, I see you're not very knowledgeable on this subject (there's no shame, not everyone is required to know the ins and outs of computers; also, do keep asking them, there's no problem with that either). But I suggest you take a step back and do a bit of reading/research on these things, before you try to apply them to your computer. There's no real damage that you can do by undervolting, but it can give headaches (like the computer shutting down on you or BSODing).

 

How low are you going with 8x multiplier?

I have now set multiplier 10x and 0.95V, 38°C but I am not happy with battery life time 2h 15min. Wlan on, ambient light sensor on medium.

 

Undervolting will not help with batt life, because the CPU will spend most of its time on its lowest multiplier, and the voltage for that multiplier is locked from the hardware, it cannot be decreased.

 

what you could also try is under clocking ur cpu. after you undervolt u could use rmclock and disable higher multipliers. if you aren't using cpu intensive applications undervolting and underclocking should help a little with battery life.

 

Thank you, on battery I am running www, ms office, maybe a dvd movie. Is there another way to extend battery life? (on 6cell)

 

You can turn off intensive background apps like: Vista sidebar and Aero. Don;t turn off the antivir though! Also keep the WiFi off when not using, same for the bluetooth. Use a comfortable brightness level, preferably smaller than max. And make sure you use an updated video driver that uses the Power Saving powermizer profile.

 

disable your camera, blue tooth, ir, and un-used ports

 

Ok tanks, but how to disable camera, ir and unused ports? And where to turn on powermizer. I have vista and 177.72 drivers.

 

you can disable them using your device manager. just make sure you know what you are disabling before you do it.

 

Anyone know how to get rid of the "swipe finger to log on" user account on the vista login screen? I only have one user account, and it's annoying to see "swipe finger" account. Is there any way to disable/hide it? I read that uninstalling the driver for the fingerprint scanner will do it, although that would defeat the purpose (I use my fingerprint reader all the time). Does anyone know of a solution? I'm thinking using an alternate driver might work, because my friend who owns a Dell with a built-in fingerprint reader does not have this problem. Any ideas guys? Thanks.

 

Greetings.

Very happy with my B1 but I have one question. Eventually I am going to be taking this south and I would like to be able to hook it up to my Denon 3801.

Is there an adapter that I can get to go to the toslink or other input of my Denon receiver to get 5.1 audio. I only have a DVI input on my rear projector which will only handle the video.

Thanks and regards
EJM

 

i wish! for being a 'standard' that 3/8" line to digital port on just about every notebook, i've never seen a proper adapter that worked.

what you need is the stereo mini jack on one end, and the coax digital on the other.

sadly i've never seen or heard of a way to get toslink out of that jack, good luck.

 

that was the first thing i uninstalled when i got this notebook.

you say you use the fingerprint reader often? what for? if you are the only user, i can't find a reason to use it.
care to share? perhaps i can learn some ways to make us of it. (currently uninstalled)
from what i understand, the software loaded to remember your fingerprint (i think the stuff from asus) talks to vista, so if there isn't an option to disable the windows logon, i'd say yer sol with that asus software. however, the fingerprint reader can be installed with the asus drivers, it will just sit there.... i'm not sure if vista itself has its own fingerprint reader software to mess around with.. take a look

 

disabling powermizer should be an option in the nvidia control panel. under the 'mobile' subheading.

otherwise confer to the www.laptopvideo2go.com forums for a registry edit.

 

Hello, I have a problem, I've installed all the drivers from that page:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=229282&page=77

form emporiumboutique post.

Now I have:

- Unkown device
- Unknown device
- Controler PCI memory

Please help me

 

I am looking for a machine with a good CPU and a nice graphics card with a 17" screen. The only real competitor I have access to locally is this Toshiba laptop - the Satellite P300-133.
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe....p/productPage.do?service=EU&PRODUCT_ID=150424

I can't really find any real review about it. It seems like no one is actually using this laptop...
The Toshiba forums here get a lot less traffic than others, and the "do you like your Toshiba?" thread is full with horror stories.

I am contemplating getting an Asus M50SV instead, which has a 180 page thread here, support for WinXP, lots of great reviews and happy users, and better specs. Unfortunately, it's only 15.4" and the 17" is not available to me.

The Toshiba is only 2.5cm wider than the Asus and weighs 300 grams more... also a bit cheaper.

I'm going to have to pack and unpack and carry this laptop around with me daily (probably using bicycles), so I'm a bit scared of the bulkiness of the Toshiba. What REALLY puts me off, though, is its complete obscurity and what seems to be a lack of support. I am going to have to rely on this computer for 3-4 years (I am getting 3 years of international warranty, but the horrible support stories from the Toshiba thread are making me ill), so I need it to last.

Any advice appreciated!

 

http://www.amazon.com/QVS-10-Foot-Toslink-Mini-Toslink-Adapter/dp/B00007E87A
Enjoy!

 

I'm planning to buy this laptop soon and was wondering if anyone from AUS who bought the laptop from a AUS shop and not overseas to post the keyboard layout. I just want to know if the "Enter" is the big or small one.

 

Wow.... this thread has dropped to all the way to 3rd page!

Come on guys, keep it up on first page!

 

What temps are you guys getting? and what stable clocks did you manage to get up to?
I have my gpu @ 600/450/1300 running max @ 81C, is that ok? I cant seem to clock the memory any more than 450 (gets unstable), but the other clocks can go higher..and how can I over clock my CPU? I have core 1 maxed @ 30C and core 2 maxed @ 50C, can I (should I) overclock it?

 

Hi all.

I've been searching around the net for info on the notebook I just purchased. Looks like theres lots of relevent information in this thread. I thought I'd post here.

I purchased a M50Sv the other day and I was very pleased to own one. I'm a bit worried now though because I've been reading up about the graphics card - the NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500M GS - and that it has a G84 core. I've also read reports that all G84/G86 cores have a 100% failure rate. How will this effect me? I have a two year warranty. If my Laptop dies, will it be repaired properly? I was told it would just be replaced by the same graphics card (which wouldn't solve the problem as that will eventually die).

Has anyone had to deal with this issue? Any further reading I can do?

 

Yeah, the Internet is full of information about this. Just search for "nVidia fault" or "fiasco" or whatever.

In my opinion this whole thing is just a bit overrated. First of all, all electronic devices have a 100% failure rate. All things in the Universe have a 100% failure rate Everything dies. My point is, it makes little sense to say that something has 100% failure rate, without referring to the time spans involved, or other means to quantify the failure probability.

What that fault means is that the service time (time to first failure) of the GPUs using those cores (or the cores from the affected batches, it's not clear that all of them are) will diminish. That's because the failure probability increases faster with the number of the heating up/cooling down cycles, than it would in a fault-free GPU.

Now, it's anybody's guess as to how much the life of the product will decrease., because to my knowledge nVidia hasn't realeased any hard data. It could be that the product dies two years faster (highly significant), or two weeks (entirely insignificant).

But that doesn't change human nature. People will worry and bash nVidia and the laptop producers, before having all the data and even understanding what the effects of the problem really are.

I don't say that you shouldn't worry. I am myself paranoid about these big companies -- when nVidia drags this thing and refuses to reveal clear information as to what is affected and how much shorter the life of the products is, I will assume the worst. I assume that everything is affected and the life is shortened significantly, and nVidia is trying to cover it up so that they don't lose significant profits in recalls and lost customers. But that's an assumption, itself a conclusion of other assumptions and observations of how companies behave in general.

So, read about this and make your own judgement. Keep in mind people tend to overreact to these things, though. I hope this post is informative to you.

 

Thank you very much. Great post . You make good points that make a lot of sense.

Just so you know, nearly all of what I posted was quoted from what other people had told me. I personally think it was an attempt to rain on my parade. I was thrilled upon purchasing it, because its the first computer I can truly call my own (everything previous was a family computer - yay adulthood!), and my first laptop to boot. I had a tight budget (under $900 if possible) so I done a lot of shopping around and bided my time. Asus, Toshiba and Dell seemed to be the three names I got suggested a lot so I looked into all of them. I really wanted to get this one though, and low-and-behold, I managed to at a great price. I am still happy I got the laptop. It had steller reviews, and the price I got it for I have no reason to complain ($751 AUD brand new, w/ 2 year warranty). I got:

ASUS M50SV

Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate
Processor & Cache Memory: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9300 : 2.5 GHz, 800MHz FSB,6MB On-Die L2 Cache
Chipset: Mobile Intel® PM965 Express Chipset +ICH8M
Main Memory: 4GB = 2 x 2GB DDR2 667 MHz SDRAM,
Display: 15.4" WXGA+, 1440x900res. Color-Shine (Glare-type),Asus Splendid Video Intelligent Technology
Video Graphics & Memory: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500M GS, Dedicated 512MB VRAM
Hard Drive: 2.5" 9.5mm SATA 250GB,5400rpm
Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi Double Layer, burns DVD & CD.
Card Reader: 8 in 1 card reader: SD,MMC,MS,MS-Pro,mini SD w/ adapter,MS-Duo,MS-Pro Duo via adapter
Video Camera: 1.3 Mega Pixel web camera
Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN: Integrated Intel® High Definition Audio chip ( Azalia) compliant MDC fax/modem and 10/100/1000 Base T, Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.0+EDR, Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Interface:
1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Headphone-out jack (S/PDIF)
1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor
4 x USB 2.0 ports (1 for E-SATA combo port)
1 x IEEE 1394 port
1 x RJ11 Modem jack for phone line
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
1 x WLAN/Bluetooth On/Off Switch
1 x CIR for remote controller
1 x TV Antenna Input (Optional)
Audio: Built-in Azalia compliant audio chip, with 3D effect & full duplex, built-in speaker and microphone
Keyboard: 19mm full size 88 Key with MS Windows function keys
Security: BIOS Booting / HDD User Password Protection and security lock, Kensington lock hole, TPM(Trusted Platform Module) V1.2, Fingerprint Scanner
Virus & Tool Software: Norton™ Internet Security 2007, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0, NERO 7 Essentials
ASUS Utility: Asus Win flash for BIOS and Driver live Update, ASUS CopyProtect, ASUS SmartLogon, Asus Live Update, Asus Multi-Frame, Power 4 Phone, Asus NB Probe +, Power 4 Gear eXtreme, ASUS Life Frame III, ASUS Security Protect Manager(ASPM), Asus Data Security Management(ADSM), Virtual Camera, Asus Wireless Console, ASUS 3G Networking, ASUS 3G Watcher

I honestly think it was an attempt at scaremongering directed at me. I mean, obvious there is an inherent issue with these cards, but I've decided not to stress about it too much. I guess I can look at it like the money I saved on buying it could be put towards a repair or replacement card. Anyway, cheers again. I'll be using this thread as a reference in future

 

Firstly, I am not at all sure that your card is affected by this problem. (NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500M GS) Somebody who knows for sure should give this information. I am sure that 8400 and 8600 are affected, but I haven't seen the 9x00's mentioned yet.

Next, I think that your decision is a good one. If your card is indeed affected, do keep up with the new information about the issue, and about possible fixes.

See e.g., if a BIOS is posted that spins up the fans more and prevents the card from heating up too much. Also, keep your fan and vents clean (clean them up once every few months). Unfortunately, from the disassembly manual: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=260993 it looks like the fan cannot be removed w/o voiding warranty, so you're restricted to using compressed air. But that's better than nothing. (regular cleaning should be done regardless of whether the GPU suffers from the problem or not)

And lastly, enjoy your notebook and don't worry too much about all these things. For all you know, you may get a new one before any problem pops up, or something else may well fail before the GPU.

 

My G84 is still kickin strong...

 

Hey avi85, that happens to me as well. Its weird though because there seems to be no pattern. I get this error when I startup my system, not in sleep mode. I have to restart again, but it freezes so I have to do a Hard shutdown of the system and then once I start again, its gone. It happens occasionally. It started happening when I installed BitDefender. Do you have the same AV? I reinstalled the webcam driver and disabled smart logon. I also unchecked some deny factors in BitDefender, ill let you know what happens

 

Hey everyone,
I was wondering if anyone knew what this ITECIR Infrared Receiver is actually for. Considering it's just a receiver, I figured that I might be able to use it to control Windows Media Player with a universal remote (which would be REALLY good) but I can't seem to find anything that works. Anyone have any info? I hope it isn't totally useless!!! Thanks!

Side note: If you do have info about whether the M50Sv/a works with a remote, can I use a Logitech Harmony for it?

Also, if you do know about this stuff, please tell me how to set it up, because I can't find a thing! I know that there's a difference between Ir and IrDA but I was wondering if the Harmony remotes could work with a signal like that. ??? (help!)

Edit:
Apparently our M50s have an IrDA chip AND a CIR chip (Consumer IR.) I can't seem to get any of my remotes (or the universal codes for Microsoft or Media Center PC) to work with it. I don't have a Logitech remote but I'm considering getting one. Again, any info would be appreciated. I have a need to control Windows Media Player from the couch! (ok need used loosely lol)

 

I use norton... also, I haven't had the problem ever since I stopped using SmartLogon...

 

same here, havent had the problem since I stoped Smart Logon.

 

For the longest time, I had a problem with the fan making very loud noises, so I took it in, and they replaced the entire thermal unit. Now that I have my notebook back, however, I'm noticing that a sound louder than my new fan coming from what seems to be the hard drive(When looking at the keyboard, it's coming from under the numpad at the bottom right).

Now, it could just be because I was so fixated on the noise coming from my old broken fan that I never noticed the hard drive making a loud noise, or it just started happening after I took it in to get repaired.

The only description I can give, is that when just sitting at my notebook, it sounds like a fan, but the sound itself is coming from the hard drive. I'm assuming it's just the hard drive spinning fast all the time, but that makes me think it may be faulty. And I do know it's my hard drive, because if I take it out and turn the notebook on, the noise is no longer present.

So I'm just wondering, has anyone else noticed that the hard drive itself is rather loud? Or is it just mine? And I'm not talking about the parking "click" noise, I know that's normal. I'm talking about a constant fan-like noise.

 

If the sound is coming from beneath the number pad then it's most likely originating from your optical drive. Like you mentioned, hard drive sounds resemble clicking sounds more than a revving fan-like sound.
If you still think it's your hard drive, you can check for it's health with HDD Health monitor and see if it's failing or if you have an extra hard drive, use that and see if you experience the same fan-like sounds.
I don't recall my hard drive being loud at all though.....

 

If the HDD is abnormally noisy, I would first back up all the data. And then do some SMART tests. Maybe try to RMA the drive even if the SMART tests come out OK.