M50Sv: Review & Owners' Lounge

as for your graphics card crt I personally wouldn't worry about it...I play crysis with my current overclock everyday for like 4 hours during work evvvveryday cause Iraq is boring....and i've had the m50sv well over two months, and it is still running just as good as when I got it...I honestly think it's a great card...i play crysis all settings high except shaders and i get 19 to 33 fps which 19 seems low to most but it doesn't really stutter like you would think...

and yea Adamd vista ult 64 does fly alot faster than home premium 32bit haha...i don't mind the few programs that can't run on it yet...but it does run great

and EBE I ordered that samsung spinpoint m60s 500gb internal hard drive and when i get home in about 3 weeks i will have it installed i will post the results if i get any...

 

well, i have 2 years warranty, so if it's breaks, i'll go to them, "duh it doesn't work, fix it", if it's the gpu i'll insist they take the GPU from a new m50 laptop and put it in the slot of this one (it should modular after all), or put this hard drive in a new laptop (i'm not in the mood of installing 40 GB worth of applications).

btw, on another issue, is there a large difference in crysis between 2 and 4 GB (the GPU should also take some of that ram)?

also, does any one have a zalman nc2000 with this one, and does it "work"?

 

i use a 10 dollar notebook cooler from a little shop here in Iraq and it keeps everything about 5c cooler....as long as you got a fan blowing in the bottom vents your notebook will stay cooler....also Idk about jumping from 2gb of ram to 4gb of ram...but when i went from 3gb of ram to 4gb of ram, everything ran faster and smoother...others may think its not possible because you'll "never use all of the 4 gigs" but when i was using 3gigs of ram i was only using about 1gb of it...now that i have 4gb im using 1.5gb of it most of the time and it will get up to 2gb of usage...idk seems wierd but it definitley showed a difference...crysis runs smooth as can be on ult64 with 4 gigs...

 

Guys i want to ask for help. About my power4gear. Whenever i am on power saving mode on battery and then i run a program like gpuz, a thing pops up right like if you want to allow that program to run. whnever that pops up my power4gear settings seems to be turned off and the brightness settings is turn all the way up. but when i check on the setting it is still on battery saving mode =(

 

well actually, you do get all the ram because you're on 64 bit/ others may get all the ram (or various errors) if they enable PAE on a 32 bit system, which allows it to see 2^36 bytes (so around 68 GB), unfortunatly there are software issues with that (drivers that are aware of PAE, which aren't common).
anyway, seems i know what i'll be getting for Christmas, 4GB of ram

my problem is that the wooden table i keep it on while gaming gets heated (a lot), the notebook is actually cooler then the table, so there's no more cooling, if i move it to another table it cools down fast again.

 

Looks like bugs in Power4Gear / incompatibility with UAC. You could try upgrading P4G if there is any newer version, otherwise, you could just forget about it, use RMClock for CPU control, and the Vista profiles for brightness control.

Change the table? I know, easier said than done...

 

any table reviews here on the forum?

 

Hi guys
Lots of time has past from my last visit here
So, I’m writing right now cause I’ve had huge problems in the last few days which are worrying me a lot.
Well, here we are: let’s start…

1) I have a big big drivers connected problem… I’ve at the moment installed the Nvidia Forceware Driver 174.74, found it on laptop video 2 go… they caused some problems at the beginning but probably I didn’t notice it so much… the matter is that in the last days the drivers started to get mad. Well, first of all when drivers are installed windows take lots of second in charging when the laptop is booting (I think for a total of 40-50 second)… instead with drivers uninstalled it takes very shorter time in charging.
But anycase, this is not a big problem… the huge and idiot problem is related with these ****** Vista Popups… you know the bothering popups coming out when you try to run an application (because it’s a sort of unidentified program), popups asking you if you’re sure you want to run this application or not… so, the matter is, when these popups come out everything starts to move slow (as I’m getting 2 fps max) especially the mouse cursor, because it’s the only thing you can move when this popups come out… well, it’s particularly bothering because with mouse going to slow and imprecisely I take lots of second only trying to click on the CONTINUE button… so, it’s an idiot and stupid problem but which can make me waste lots of minute! For every program I run.
Well I know It’s a drivers problem cause if drivers are uninstalled this problem disappear… and everything is ok… so what can I do? I must take drivers installed for playing because these are the best choice for this gpu I think…
(a curious and odd matter is that the popups related problem disappear anytime the laptop is plugged into the wall… but I think It’s more than obvious that CAN’T plug the laptop anytime I have to run an application ò_ò )

2) Another problem related with that upon is that with the “vista program for giving a judgment of your pc (laptop in this case)” - no idea about how it’s called in English - so, in this program’s window, you can enter from the control panel, there’s a warning saying something like this (with a RED “!” MARK near it) “New hardware detected (think it’s the Gpu) so it’s necessary to update the score”… when I click on Update the updating process starts and everything is all right until nearly the end when suddenly it finishes and a window appear saying that “It has not been possible to complete the updating cause a problem occurs CONNECTED WITH THE CPU, THE OPERATIVE SYSTEM OR THE DRIVERS”
Well, I’m quite sure It’s the same drivers problem causing me the “making slower the mouse cursor” problem.
I know this with the score it’s not a big matter but it anyway hurts my nerves cause I feel there’s something going wrong, you know…

3) Since I start getting this driver’s problem (or maybe this I’m gonna tell you is what happen first, don’t remember well, sorry) when I play CoD2 and I start a level, everything is allright for I think 50 seconds more or less… than the game crash suddenly, I start to see rainbow polygons and a bothering sounds during 3 seconds as a TRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR… the game frosts with the last screenshot I was saying… So I press ctrl+alt+canc and I return to a Vista green and blue screen asking me if I want to run Windows Task Manger or other function, and here I waste lots of time cause there’s again that problem with the cursor going slower than normal and it’s kinda ungovernable…
When I press ESC from this Vista green and blue screen I manage automatically in returning into the game, but the framerate goes down I think about 15 fps instead normally it’s about 40…
So, don’t know why there are these problems cause I’ve this drivers installed from at least three month and there was nothing going bad… only, I noticed the PROBLEM 1 (SEE 1 lol) instead of recently maybe exactly when I installed the drivers 174.74… but when it occurs I reboot the laptop and everything was allright… there was no stupid matter of plugging into the wall the laptop or stuff like that… So what’s happened and what’s the solution?

4) Since I’ve started to have these drivers problems I installed uninstalled and reinstalled the 174.74 several times (I think at least seven times)… the matter is that while at the beginning I had 67 GB of free space in my HD, now I have 63,9 GB… where all these GBs are gone? Maybe it’s connected with vista updates, so this is not a real problem…

5) This last point and then I’ve finished… I promise you…
Don’t know if this is a drivers related problems but I noticed it recently (though I’ve tested my sound record only recently) … so that’s the matter… I can’t record nothing… The odd thing is that the microphone is ok…
I’m gonna explain: when I run Windows Sound Recorder (Hope this is the exact name in English) and I clap my hands or say something I see the green bar extends from left to right and then returns to its original position… well, the matter is that when I start recording I can even scream as someone is trying to killing me but no sign of the green bar, as if the microphone doesn’t even exist or has been deactivated… what’s the problem???? In the control panel it’s everything allright so the microphone has no problem and it’s working… in fact the problems start when I press the recorder red button… I think it’s a vista bug or stuff like this… How can I resolve it?


Well… I’ve finished, Hope someone can help me…

Hope my English is quite comprehensible…
Thx a bunch

440


P.S.
Vista has noticed that I don’t have an original office copy… and everytime I run it I’ve this bothering window saying me that it’s not an original software and etc…
That has been caused by a mistaken office updating I shouldn’t have done.
Does some1 know how to repristinate office in order to make disappear this bothering window (which is also at the beginning of the start menu)?

Ah! When gaming I get a temperature of 75 degrees… Must I be worried?

 

I really suggest installing a different version of drivers from laptopvideo2go, if this one is causing problems. I'm pretty sure you can find a version with less than 5% performance hit, and that means nothing in real-life.

Also make sure to uninstall old drivers and run DriverCleanerPro or equivalent software to remove traces of the old drivers from the system, before you install new drivers.

Where the disk space is going: probably into System Restore points, created every time you install the driver again.

75 degs during load is OK for a laptop.

I don't know about the microphone problem.

 

is 80-83 degrees for the gpu ok?

 

Is cclenare ok or must I download a more specific program like the one you said?

 

they are different programs for different tasks.

i saw that there's a new bios, 209, on the Asus website, has anyone tried it out?

 

fullmetal440, I believe ccleaner is more of a registry/temp file cleaner. I would suggest DriverCleanerPro for driver removals, if it works in Vista. If not, surely there are equivalents.

Also, I should say a GPU temp of 85 degrees is still OK if the 3D task (game) is demanding, depending of course on the cooling system of the notebook.

 

Where? I only see 207...

 

i saw the 209 in the bios section of the m50sv downloads, i tried downloading it but it would not start so i thought i'll download it later. now i went back and 209 is no where to be seen!?!?

I'm having problems overclocking, i can only get the memory of the 9500m to 450mhz and anything more than that i get heavy artifacts even in 2d....i tried different drivers but no luck....im on 177.83's.. and another thing that's bugging me is the all of a sudden downlclocking to power safe 3d mode 10 mins into gaming..even if i leave it on idle it doesn't go back up to performance mode, i have to restart the comp... any suggestions??

ok i downloaded the 209 but when i start the ez flash tool, and browse to the folder where the file is, it doesn't show up (not recognizing or somthing) anyone else have luck?

 

I suggest:
a) Don't overclock at clocks that will give you artifacts. That most likely means that your card won't take those clocks.
b) Change your display drivers if you have bugs. Drivers from laptopvideo2go can always be buggy, and different versions may have different bugs.

Also, please don't post consecutive posts. Use the edit button to add information. I will merge your messages.

 

i think it's the extension, try renaming it to .bin

 

something i just learned through experimentation with this model.

the bios contains a setting for speaker volume right after the setting for startup sound(the chimes noise) on/off. its default is a value of 4. setting this to its highest level increased the volume output at max from the notebooks speakers in the operating system as well.(warning disable startup sound once volume is maxed or suffer the consequences )

aside from this being an insane way of doing things, for those with low volume issues this may be the fix we were looking for. (m50sv-x3).

 

sorry about the consecutive posts.

ye i just keep it at 450 for gaming. i have the clocks at 600 core 450 mem and 1300 shaders. its just that i see other people with higher stable clocks so i thought it could be done on mine too

whats weird is, when i overclock CPU to 2.8 (from 2.5) i can raise the gpu clocks higher without artifacts at 630/480/1350. but it throttles back to low power mode clock speeds after 5 mins (but it was stable during that 5 mins!)

tried that and still doesn't work. i tried downloading it again but now its removed from the asus site

it was there, then they removed it, then it was there again, then it gets removed, **** you asus

has anyone updated to the new bios 209? and if you have can you attach the file on here as its not on the asus site anymore.

thanks for your helpS

 

well i have it, but seems to be back on the Asus site: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/M50Sv/M50Sv209AS.zip
direct link

 

thank for that.

if you have, which method did you use to update the bios?

 

i haven't updated it yet. i like to wait a while. most of the time i avoid surprises that way

btw, the winflash program does seem to recognize it as correct (but from my experience with other winflashes i wouldn't recommended, i prefer the one from within the bios)

 

this is what it says on Asus's site, anybody have any idea what issue they are talking about?

 

i have no idea, mine didn't hang up. it's probably one of those, if you run x, y and z your computer might hang up scenarios that 0.1% of users see.

well i upgraded from within the bios using easyflash. no problem updating, but ...no major change either. only thing that is different if (i recall it was that way) is that the led's that were on in standby don't gradually dim, they just go on and off.

 

Thanks for the info, if you notice anything else please post.
On the subject of LEDs I wish there was a way to turn them all off, on my bro's gateway there is a shortcut key to turn them all off even while the computer is on which is awesome if you leave it on at night near your bed...

 

I also recommend the EasyFlash util from the BIOS itself, for upgrading the BIOS.

 

I updated the BIOS to 209 using WinFlash and everything seemed to be fine except that my system keeps rebooting mid-game when playing UT3. You think this could be a BIOS problem or game problem. This never happened before... just recently.

I have the latest graphics drivers, Vista updates and game patches and this didn't give me any problems; just after I updated BIOS, so I can't help myself but blame it. Any suggestions?

 

If it only happens after you updated the BIOS... I'd roll back to the previous BIOS (you'll have to rewrite it just as if you would update it), and see if the problem goes away.

See my guide (link in sig) for how to downgrade using WinFlash. But I recommend EasyFlash for that too, there's no special steps that need to be taken with EasyFlash to downgrade, and it's safer than the Windows-based util.

 

well, after the update i played Mass Effect for about 5 hours which is uses the UT3 engine and i had no problems with it

also, was the reboot from a BSoD or a reboot (on vsta it should make kernel dumps by default so that should be visible)

 

Thanks for the fast replies. I tried reinstalling UT3 w/ patch 1.3 and no luck along with updating windows more and it was getting frustrating. I rolled back to 207 as E.B.E suggested and worked like a charm (using EasyFlash to avoid further complications).

It didn't get any BSoD during the problem. Just a simple reboot with no warning. I didn't check any kernal dumps either. Where can I find these? I'd like to know why the BIOS was causing these problems.

 

kernel dumps are only made if there's a stop erro in windows, mostly not related to bios problems but to hardware problems (bad ram, bad disk, cpu overheating in some cases) or software (a driver was doing something it shouldn't).
when windows crashes it creates dmp files providing the swap is active and in the default location (c
these are located -by default -in c:\windows (the file is called memory.dmp) if kernel or complete memory dump is selected and in c:\windows\minidump if small dump is selected. the dumps in minidump are in this format

Mini mmddyy-xx.dmp
where mmddyy is the date of the crash in month, day, year format and xx a number starting from 01 (if the'res more then one crash on that day then the next one will be 02)

however if flashing solved it it might just be the bios

 

I heard from a supplier that M50Sv is discontinued in Australia. They haven't told me which model is to replace the M50Sv yet.

EDIT: I received their email and the model that replaces the M50Sv is M50Vc

 

GUYS DOES ANYONE HERE EVER TRIED TO PLAY GEARS OF WAR FOR THE PC? i get the runtime error at the first part of the stage (when you go outside and a chopper would crash and then the press the Q sign comes up and then poff, runtime error) i tried it via xp and vista (both on the m50sv) and it crashes at the same place everytime

i just bought a z2300 (cost me PHP8000 or roughly $150++ ) and i really want to play this game =( help guys...

i also would like to inquire about power for gear not working or being overriden whenever UAC is triggered. any fix for this?

 

I don't know if anyone has had this problem (or maybe have not noticed it), but while connected through wireless at 54MBps(full signal strength from my router, wireless G), on a 10 Mbit Internet connection, my downloads were always capped at around 350KBps for a single download. Usually, the norm was 150KBps.

Using a wired connection on the notebook and a separate PC, I was obtaining speeds of up to 1MBps, which is what the speeds are supposed to be like always.

Please note, both of these PCs were using Windows XP.

After much browsing, I found a program called Cablenut, and ran something that changed some TCP/IP settings, and voila, I can download up to 1MBps on through wireless on my notebook now too.

What I want to know, is this just a problem with the m50sV's settings, or do all wireless NICs suffer from this same thing?

And what exactly was causing this in the first place that needed to be fixed in TCP/IP settings?

It was very confusing to figure out how to fix this, now I just want to know WHY it needed to be fixed. All I did was downlaod the program and it fixed it for me. i don't really know what settings it needed to change.

 

i've tried everything but i cant seem to be able to update through bios flash tool. the bios file just wont show up it looks like i have no other option but to use winflash.

edit/ OK i worked it out and updated through the easy flash tool through the bios and haven't noticed any difference yet in the 209.

This throttling of gpu clocks during gaming is pissing me off. is anyone else getting this?? it downclocks to low power 3d clocks and just gets stuck on them clocks till i restart . would it have something to do with "power4gear extreme"??

 

Bauss you are dealing with the POWERMIZER feature of NVIDIA. You need to download the powermizer swith that somebody made here. Just search powermizer switch on notebookreview =)

 

hey got a little problem here. this actually happen before but i forgot how to fix it.
my multimedia mode doesnt work. suddenly so when i tap the "Mode" writings on the touchpad, the light doesn't came on which means it is still a normal "pointing place".

does anyone know which drivers / software affect this? i might reinstall it. or something else? thx

 

should be the synaptics program/driver. did you disable the tap zones?

 

Does anyone know if the M50Sv screen is 16:10 or 16:9 ratio?

 

The native resolution is 1440 x 900, so I'm assuming it is 16:10.

 

FYI, new bios out! 209 GET IT AT ASUS DOWNLOADS

 

try a newer version of p4g or p4gx from asus downloads.

its Powermizer, its a feature of the nvidia driver set for mobile gpu's. in some of the newer drivers you can disable it in the nvidia control panel, or if you prefer older drivers you can disable it via registry edit. see www.laptopvideo2go.com forums.

the latest synaptics and asus toucpad (xxx.18)drivers dont' work with the 'luxpad' on the m50sv. so you need to stick with xxx.16 version.

m50sv is native 16:10

 

sanity check on non functioning mediapad.

did you disable tap to click? this must be enabled for the mode button(and the media buttons when enabled) to work. right click synaptics tray icon (if you have it shown) and check for a check mark next to tap to click...

 

Could somebody tell me what i would gain if i upgrade my bios to 209? and will the p4g hybrid work with the sv? like is there an on board vid card that i could switch to to lessen the heat?

 

The changes to BIOS 209 should be listed on the support/download website (although many times the descriptions are quite cryptical).

I do not believe the M50S has a dual GPU setup, someone correct me if I'm wrong...

 

no, it hasn't, the chipset is the PM965 model, not the G one, so no integrated graphics.

BTw, i'm confused, all indications are that the hard drive is SATA, then why does the ASus website list the M50sv as having a PATA drive: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=2024&l1=5&l2=74&l3=616&l4=0

 

Typo (copy paste & forgot to edit).

 

is the M50 and M51 same size and weight?

 

See my response to your post in the other thread.

 

I got my Asus M50sv a few days ago. There are a couple of problems (aside from them, it's great) :

1) It comes with the old wireless chipset that doesn't support the N protocol. Is this even possible? The model's page on the Asus site doesn't even give this as an option. Can this be replaced without replacing the entire computer?

2) There's a noticeable light bleed from the lower part of the screen. Is this a known problem? Can they fix/change the screen in the lab or is this something they replace the entire computer for?

Thanks.