M50Sv: Review & Owners' Lounge

No problem
Fingerprint reader works the same... just install the driver from the CD. IR never worked for XP as far as i know.

 

Thanks, that's good to know.

 

Aloha!
Just wanted to say I got my Asus M50SV today and I can't wait to start playing with it this weekend! Does the american model come with the
3G sim card slot? I think thats my only question?

Thanks GenTech for the quick shipping overnight to Hawaii!. Awsome service and would highly recommend to any buyers!

 

Hi

I just found out that I'm unable to hear audio from flash based clips. So far, from what I've been able to google, I'm thinking that this might just be an Adobe issue, but I just wanna check here if anyone have encountered the same issue.

 

This would having nothing to do with faulty hardware if you are worried, this will only occur from the software not working properly or you aren't using it correctly (xD).

Is this happening in your browser or on the standalone flash player? Or something else? :S

 

I know it's not the hardware that's faulty. I think it's more than likely something to do with how the softwares are interacting with each other. I can play MP3s via Firefox or iTunes or WMP. All of my Adobe (CS3 and others) softwares are updated. One possibility is a missing wavemapper driver, a possible side effect of re/installing XP. Thought based on the information that I've been able to google, the wavemapper driver is where it's suppose to be.

Anyway, I'll continue to look. I'm just curious about other users who have switched from Vista to XP and whether they've experienced the same issue.

 

Another issue that seems to be about Software integration is with the RealTek program and how I can't access the volume control option, after right-clicking on its system tray icon. It tells me that "There are no active mixer devices available". This means that I can't control the sound level at all. Yet, it's more like a XP thing as well, though without any fixes. I don't know if this is related to me now being able to use the Function key option to control the Audio Level as well.

 

It works for me, maybe you need to reinstall it?

 

Hello, I have the a1. Just got it. I dont' have TPM either. I also don't have the asus security protect manager thingy you mentioned. I have two folders off the start menu re asus... Asus and Asus Utility. Neither have this program.

when i first turned the m50 on, it did something about the finger print reader, i swiped my finger, and then it encountered some sort of error saying it couldn't proceed, so i just entered in a typed pwd.

i want to use the finger print scanner to log on to windows.

how do I do this? the device is installed, has latest drivers, i uninstalled the device...it re-installed it.....can't make it work.

Ryan Mitton. Do I need to start all over again with recovery discs? I see you said to re-install it from the cd...which cd? the recover disc or the driver disc? i looked on the driver disc but can't find the drivers for the AuthenTec Inc. AES1610 I can find a folder for TCP but can't do anything with it.

 

I am going to be ordering this off of gentech but before i do i just wanted to make sure that this could handle rainbow six vegas 2/ Cod4/ ages 3/ and Age of conan all on mediem or higher? I am using this primarily as a college notebook/and multimedia but will also game is this the right notebook for me?

 

is there any room to over clock the cpu ?

 

Hi Ken

I did try to uninstall it, using the Device Manager but it wouldn't let me. So I used the Add/Removed Software tool, which kinda did the job, but left me with yellow flag in the Device Manager windows. Tried to install the RealTek driver again and it errors out every time.

 

I'm still waiting to see the m50 in person, but i saw the new satellites today and it's gonna be a tough decision. but if the speakers on the m50 are anything like the g1, toshiba will blow them away, now the only other question is, do i really need a blu-ray player

 

Toshiba lost any respect with their dead and dying hard drive division years ago. they lost respect with their industry low optical drive reliability. Now they pretty much lost it all with their hd-dvd back pedaling. I venture to say their laptops are not a far cry from the rest of their consumer electronics.,

 

Hey Ken,

I'm thinking about purchasing the M50sv-a1 from you but i was wondering if you can ship with fedex? Thanks

 

i hear ya, the only reason i'm still using my current toshiba is cause i extended the warrenty, i've had the cooling system on this thing fail so many times.
you may have just swayed me back to asus, especially with their awesome warrenty.

 

Try uninstall it again and boot to safe mode, remove Realtec Audio in safe mode from Device Manager, reboot and install the driver again.

Yes you can send me PM to talk about this.

It's good to have one but many people choose A1 model since they already have PS3 at home.

 

Thank you Ken. It works.

BTW, I just noticed something about the Ambient Light Sensor. I don't have the same GUI that's show in your pic. I have a pop up window in the top left corner of the screen appearing every time i use the FN + * command. How can I get the same GUI that should be there.

 

The latest version of ATK OSD perhaps?

 

Like E.B.E said, it should be the ATK OSD, I use the original drivers CD to install ATK Driver, ATK Hot key, ATK OSD and ATK Media.

 

Got my m50sv-a1 today and i'm really pleased with it. I made my buying decision based on all the threads in these forums and the great reviews and info from everyone, especially GenTechPC.

I wanted an all around notebook that could handle all of what I do well (business and software development applications) and the occaisional game or two. In particular Flight Simulator X. With FSX SP2, I got 25 FPS with all sliders on high or ultra-high. Really looked good.

There is one issue I'm hoping someone with one of these can help me with.

I began hearing a VERY slight clicking noise coming from the hard drive. To make a long story short, this appears to be a 'feature' in where the drive's heads park after 5 seconds of idle time. Basically, after the LED goes off, about 5 seconds later, I hear this very slight click. It's hard to test while in windows because there's alot going on, so I booted into the bios and then DOS, created some HD activity, and waited for the click 5 seconds later.

Is anyone else hearing this? I mean i'm not sure i'd hear it if the laptop itself wasn't so quiet. I just want to make sure i'm heaing it because there's something wrong with the drive. i.e., normal feature, but mine is louder...

 

Can anyone compile a list of drivers/utilities from the recovery disks/asus website that do NOT work with xp?
And do we need the asus power 4 gear or can we just use the mobility settings in xp?
Also, do we need NB Software Kit Utility?

 

This is normal. Don't worry too much I too can hear faint clicking noises, but because this laptop is very quite, the sound may be more noticeable like you said. All hard drives will click when you access it. As long as the hard drive doesn't make that sound constantly for 15 minutes at a time, then you should be fine.

 

yes, i'm familiar with your typical hard drive noises, and oddly enough, this drive is very quiet, and can hardly hear it at all when active.

It's just this single head-parking 'click' 5 seconds after the LED goes off that i'm wondering about. You won't hear another click unless more HD activity occurs.

Basically, just wondering if mine is louder than others... (I know, being a bit anal here)...

I just don't want to load up all my stuff from my old laptop (sweating already) and then find out I have a problem.

 

Well I've lurked this particular thread long enough. I went ahead and ordered the M50Sv-A1 from GentechPC. I was going to order through newegg.com but Gentech had been so helpful in this thread with benchmarks and upfront information that I felt compelled to give a little back.

Hopefully they'll get my order processed and shipped out quickly. Being in Iraq makes anything and everything coming through the mail take forever.

I'm upgrading from a HP Pavilion ZD8000. So this should be quite a change. I can't wait.

 

Just a quick question guys and gals....

I'm leaving town for 10 days and won't be taking my lappy with me. Is it better to turn it off and leave it plugged in? Or, is it better to turn it off and unplug it?

Thanks

 

I would suggest turning it off, unplugging it, and taking out the battery.

 

Ok, I hadn't thought about removing the battery. Will removing all power source from the computer cause any internal battery to lose power?

 

Finally I bought Assassin's Creed Director's Cut Edition, this is the game I've been waiting for, thanks Robin for letting me know it's out.

M50Sv-A1
Penryn T9300
9500M GS 512MB driver version 174.31 no overclock
3GB RAM

Assassin's Creed game video 1440X900 at high settings:



I don't have PS3 so this is the first time I play this game, looks like it's one of the best game for PC.

 

Hi I am new here and I'm currently very interested in this as my next buy. Does anyone know the difference between Asus M50SV-AS016G and Asus M50SV-AS082G? After looking at alot of sites, they seem to be the same to me...

 

Looks like these two models are sold outside of US, I Google it and see the only difference is the M50SV-AS016G has LightScribe and M50SV-AS082G does not.

 

Your from Australia it seems? Most sites seem to misquote them and have the specs for each exactly the same. >.<

So really if you are impelled to know the differences between these before a purchase, ask the store site to make sure they haven't simply made a mistake.

 

appearantly the 'clicking' noise I was discussing is very common, and many find it very annoying. It's an issue across many brands of 'mobile' hard drives due to the need to conserve battery life. Essentially, it's a spin down and head-park to conserve energy. There's even some debatable discussion that this kind of activity actually lowers the life of the drive. The seagates do this after 5 seconds of idle time. You can see that there could be some scenarios where this is happening quite a bit. 5 seconds is not a long time.

Here is a pretty substnatial thread in where a 'fix' using NHC 2.0 is used to alter the power savings settings of the drive. Not clear if it itself is bad for the drive in the long run.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=168425&page=1

 

I remember reading it on the internet about hard drive activity, it could be Vista automatically defrag the hard drive when it's idle, or you can disable SuperFetch service that'll help a little bit.

 

All these theories seem reasonable. What I found was that my old Hitachi Travelstar wasn't clicking (or maybe its seek noise was so loud that the clicking was getting covered by it...). A Seagate Momentus 5400.3 did it (quite loudly). Besides, it was a really quiet drive.

I now have the Western Digital Scorpio 250 PATA (WD2500BEVE). I shall see if this one clicks.

For the clicking one, I just did a surface check and a SMART test and when they came out OK, I didn't worry about it any more. It works reliably until this day.

 

Ah great! That worked. I didn't want to install everything on the CD, but I guess I ended up installing all of the ATK* stuff.

Thanks everyone and Ken for helping me out with my XP installation. Next time, maybe I'll just pay Ken to install it for me.

 

Yea I'm from Australia and been looking at stores such as MSY. Trying to figure out the differences. I'd like also to appreciate everything thats in this thread, its helped me alot in having an insight on this Asus model.

 

That where i'm at right now - it's really not that loud and i can comfortably move on.

In the vein however...I'm really torn as to how to move on. I'm definitely going to reformat, but i'm torn as to what OS to preceed with.

I own a copy of both Vista Ultimate and XP Pro. I'm not sure which way is best for me to go. On one hand, I like a lot of vista (sp1) and like the idea of moving forward, but on the other hand, I really like the stability and comfort of the old shoe (XP) - plus, XP3 is coming out.

I'm moving a lot of 'stuff' from my old laptop, and don't relish the process to begin with, let alone doing it again if i'm not happy with my descision.

I know this has been touched on before, but does anyone feel like swaying me in one direction or another?

 

all new "perpendicular" hard drive make the clicky noise from what i understand. Live on and move on. there is nothing wrong with your drive

 

As to XP versus Vista... I prefer XP -- because it does all that I need, much of it faster than Vista... because I'm used to it (no learning curve)... and because I don't require the cool looks of Vista (I'd disable them anyhow )

But those are my reasons. Not sure if they apply to you.

 

Hi all and thanks for all of the great information on this forum.

I am thinking of buying the Best Buy version of the M50Sv (the X2) but the screen resolution is 1280x800 as opposed to the standard 1280x900. I have never seen two laptops with such resolution side by side. Are the differences really that noticeable between the two? Will my picture not be as appealing? I will be using the laptop primarily for gaming but also audio engineering (Cubase).

 

I would strongly recommend you purchase it from GenTechPC. They currently have an instant rebate promotion, plus, the specs for the M50Sv-A1 is better and cheaper than the one offered at Best Buy. You'll also get first-class service if anything should go wrong. All Asus laptops sold at Best Buy usually have weaker specs and higher prices.

 

That's the same thought process I go thru when I lean towards the XP side. Then I'll remind myself that there many areas in vista that you can revert back to 'classic' mode and have it be familiar again. Also, it appears to me that under the covers of much of vista lies the familiar screens we're used to from XP. Just takes a bit of poking around to get to them. Vista just seems like a new shell (or skin) added on top of XP. Maybe that's an over-simplification, as I'm sure there are some underlying core enhancements, but that's just what I'm seeing as I poke around.

Anyhow, I'm still unddecided, and am just thinking about it as I mess around with this new toy! I'm really liking this laptop...

 

Yeah, but if it's just a layer of good looks added on top of XP, which we'd disable anyway, then what is the point? But I'm sure there are other new things at work (like the new UAC for instance). Anyway, this thread shouldn't turn into an XP vs. Vista thing. There are enough of those already. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons pro and con for both of them, this is not the place to go into them.

 

Yikes, I guess I wasn’t comparing them very carefully. They are the exact same price with full warranties!

 

Good points...definitely the one about this thread...

BTW, if any one is interested in the result of my posts on the clicking noise on my m50, the "hdparm -B 254 /dev/hda" command talked about on other threads did fix the problem. And again, this noise may well have gone unnoticed had it not been for the fact that the laptop is otherwise so quiet. Now it's even more so....

 

A note by the moderators: As of today 29 April 2008, this thread is also the Owners' Lounge for the M50Sv. Enjoy!

 

Oh god thats cool! A review thread turned into an official lounge for the reviewed product. So cool.



Well I'm the first official post so YEAH kick ass.

 

2nd? 1010

 

Well, I finally made up my mind between the A1 (faster CPU) and B1 (Blu-ray drive). I just ordered a A1 from Geared2play (I bought my A8Js from them last year and their service is great) and should have it this Friday. I'll probably replace the DVD-RW with a Blu-ray later in the year once the price of the slim BD drive drops a bit.