M51Sn: Review & Owners' Lounge

1) the math says 50% more battery life time. In real-life, approximately 50% more.

Edit: I meant 50%, not 30. My math is faulty on a Sunday evening

 

Thanks, that logic is easy to do but only works if the 6 and 9 cell packs use the same cells - not sure they do. mAHr rating is the best guide, I think the 6 cell is a 4800 mAHr, 11.1V battery.

Newegg has the 9 cell listed for $135 but they're outta stock right now.

 

hey guys, just incase anyone needs measurements for the back of the M51sn i made some approximate ones and placed them on a pic of the M51sn.

I did this because im looking for the most effective laptop cooler for this laptop as i will be using it as my main computer so i want to take good care of it.

so if anyone has any recommendations on good laptop coolers that you guys use please share!

heres the pic

 

You're right of course, and we should wait for hard data from e.g., a reseller. But I think roughly 50% is a fair estimate. Anyway, the battery life is a random variable that is difficult to predict accurately.

A real-life example is W7S for which the ratio is 7800mAh(9-cell) / 4800 mAh (6-cell) = 1.6 approximately. So more than 50%.

 

hi

i just have my m51 and i have a problem with it , it is this bad noise its sound like tik tik tik

what is this ?? is it bad propblem?? how to deal with it ??
i read here one of the users replay said it will be really bad problem after 8 months is this right ??
please guys help me ..what to do

 

First of all what is making the noise? The HDD, the fan, or something else?

 

i really don't know but the noise come from the left side it really like clock sound or typing sound

what the different if the reason are the HDD or the fan ?:S

 

Is the clicking sound constant? If at idle, there's no sound, it's most probably your HDD.

If the loud sound is coming from the HDD, then if could be your HDD is failing/faulty.
If it's the fan, then it might be some dirt trapped in or on the fan which can be solved by cleaning it. If that doesn't work, then you should replace the fan.

 

The HDD is on the left side....

 

it is constant.. what to do if the reason is my HDD??

 

Try download HD Tune, do an error scan, check for the HDD health and see what you get.

 

But if it's constant (never changes in frequency etc.) then it's most likely (one of) the fan(s). Try pushing your notebook to high temps using e.g., Orthos and that will accelerate the fan. If the frequency of the clicks changes then it's the fan.

And then you should follow emporium's advice (cleaning and then possibly replace). For replacement, it's probably best to send it to ASUS rather than do it yourself, if you're under warranty.

If you get constant clicking from a HDD even if idle, then it means it's not the R/W head but the rotation, and that is most likely very bad... i.e., requiring HDD replacement.

 

error-chicking as done : 0 error

this is good new right ?

 

i but my notebook to high temps the frequency had been kind of faster .. i feel like there is something inside

umm how to clean the fan ?

 

I'm using zalman ZM-NC2000. The whole area is covered by the blown air. 2 fans. there is still 0.5" on each side when M51Sn sitting on it. There is another smaller version the NC1000 which i think is a bit smaller than M51Sn.

The fan is merely audible when set to maximum speed. And actually M51Sn temperature won't really benefit much from any laptop cooler(1-2C). The ventilation hole is too small. I removed the plastic cover whenever i'm not travelling. Temperature drop for about 5-6C (with cooler below).

 

I am not sure I understand well: so if you push your system to high temps the frequency increases? If that is the case, then it's clearly the fan.

I don't know how to get to it in the M51... there is a generic cleaning guide by Coriolis on the Info Booth, maybe that helps you. Make sure not to remove any heatsinks and break any stickers, that will void warranty! If you need to do that, better send it in to be serviced by ASUS.

 

Actually not that complicated. Remove the cover(7 screws) then the fan (3 screws). The fan can be removed without touching the heat sink.

Can refer this photo:
http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/images/Notebook/Asus/M51SR-2/Asus_M51SR_20.jpg

Edit by moderator: I replaced the IMG tag with a link, it was making the page way too wide.

 

yeah im planning on removing the plastic cover to get more airflow so my temp for my GPU/CPU will hopefully drop

 

ok i think i will call asus .. thanks

 

I am afraid to play with it thanks for your help

 

Actually, given your location, I would say don't rely on ASUS support for such a small issue, unless necessary. By that picture getting to the fan is really easy. You can just open it up and see if there is something you can fix (e.g., some plastic fragment stuck in the fan or some rough edge on the blades or fan casing, that you can smooth out).

If it's not something that can be easily fixed, I agree, send it in. Or if you're really afraid to open it up.

 

Status report

Well, having had the MS51Sn for several days, I must say that I'm very happy. I have moved from a Dell Latitude D820 so this review inevitably makes a comparison.

Some reviews made comments that the sound quality was bad, I disagree. The sound quality on the Asus is pretty good for a laptop.

The Dell and Asus have the same screen resolution which I prefer as my older eyes (need 1.5 reading glasses) can't deal with miniscule pixels. I must say though that the Asus display is much brighter - side by side the Dell screen looks yellowish (this is not a deterioration over time, the Dell has always looked murky to me).

The form factor of the 2 Laptops is similar but I LOVE the numeric keypad on the Asus. The Asus also has a much richer selection of USB, 1394, DVI, and other ports; both have fingerprint readers which are total a waste of space and battery power IMHO. The Asus camera is a plus that the Dell doesn't have.

The Asus only gets about 1:40 of battery time on the stock battery, a bit more than half what the Dell can do on its stock battery but the Asus is soooo much faster that it's not a fair comparison. Besides, I run plugged in most of the time so this doesn't have a big affect on me. My Dell has a second battery which goes into the DVD bay and I left it fitted and carried the DVD drive around with me for almost 6 hrs of running; I wish I could do that for the Asus. I have ordered a 9 cell battery for the Asus which should give me about 5 hrs of life from the 2 batteries and that compares well to the Dell on 2 batteries.

I run my own computer consulting business and wanted to install Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 but found that Vista Home Premium doesn't support it. I ran an upgrade to Vista Ultimate which, although it took about 2 hours, went off unattended and without a hitch - peculiar that the only upgrade path from Vista Home Premium is to Ultimate, all the other higher versions are reinstall only - makes you wonder if they are related with the home version being hobbled on purpose?

I have (so far) decided against a faster 7200 rpm HDD as the Tom's Hardware article seems to indicate that it won't improve anything; same goes for the ExpressCard 4Gbyte Flash card (available from NewwEgg for $30); from what I've read, ReadyBoost only saves a few seconds on bootup and from my perspective, that card must be using battery power. The Asus boot up is a little faster than the Dell (which is on XP Pro) so that's very respectable.

I've installed MS Office 2007 Enterprise Edition, MS Visio 2007, MS Project Pr 2007, all run really well. I also have Realflight G4 and it runs (High Performance Setting) at a frame rate of between 150 and 200 FPS - basically butter smooth.

I consider myself a power user and this Laptop is the perfect balance between power and portability for my needs. I can run my business on it and still have a serious play all on one 7 lb package.

Specification
M51Sn
Duo T8300
4 GB RAM
250 GB 5400 rpm HDD
15.4 WXGA screen

 

good review, but the only thing i have to disagree on is the quality of the ASUS speakers.

compared to my old HP dv6245ca pavilion laptop which also had Altec LAnsing speakers, the HP was far louder/clearer compared to the ASUS

but honestly, who uses laptop speakers anyways?

the m51sn is a great laptop for the price

 

I have noticed a prblem with my camera, I think it's the driver because it was working fine before I did the upgrade from Home Premium to Ultimate.

I get this error message saying that the device can't start. I've tried downloading the driver from the Asus download site and reinstalling but that didn't work - it seemed not to reinstall but said I already had the latest driver.

Any ideas?

 

How about uninstalling the driver first -- regardless of whether it's old or new?

 

Yes, I've tried that; I also tried installing the earlier .30 (vs.70) driver that's on the Asus web site - although the .30 gave a sucess message for installation, it still has the error, failed to start message. Am I missing something simple? Like is there a switch to disable the camera or something?

Don't know if it's related but I also have multiple failed installations of KB847562 in my Windows updates history.

 

just a quick question about warranty: will removing the stickers on the wrist panel void warranty? cuz they are kinda annoying

if you dont know what i mean, its the stickers that are left/right of the keypad.

 

^^^ feel free to remove them. things like overclocking your CPU will void your warranty.

 

Yes upgrade Vista will make the webcam stop working. Mine is with exclaimation mark but after a reinstall it seems wroking fine.

My location is: 0000.001a.0007.002.000.000.000.000.000
different from yours. Might it be the problem?

Have you tried drivers from the DVD?

 

Hey guys,

I have a M51sn too. I was trieing to install XP but it didnt work out because of the Sata driver.
I searched the hoooole Internet(jk), but could find any.
no, seriously, i've been searching a lot...

Did anyone of you ever made it to XP?
Is it running fine?

Can someone please post me a link to the sata driver or the right post in this thread. I looked up all the things on how to install XP i just need the driver :/

Thank you already!!

Ake

 

I've got a LAN question for you guys - maybe someone else has run into this. I've got an older Linksys BEFSR41 (ver. 1) 4 port router setup as my gateway. I connected the Atheros L1 Gigabit NIC to my Linksys and only get 10Mbps for a connection speed (as opposed to 100Mbps). My other computers can all connect at 100Mbps.

I've tried adjusting a bunch of different settings on both the laptop and router, as well as 5 different cables. Anyone run into this before?

-Laptop NIC is an Atheros L1 Gigabit - 10/100/1000Base T, Driver ver. 2.4.7.7 (latest)
-Vista Home Premium, 32bit
-Linksys BEFSR41 (ver. 1) 4 port router/gateway. MTU enabled - 1500, Firmware Ver. 1.46.02, Aug 03 2004

 

I had that router and had loads of trouble with it - I suspect it's the router not your Atheros card. I have had a Linksys RV082 and it's a good 'un, there is also an RV042 which is supposed to be the same beast with only 4 ports.

If you want a WAP + router all-in-one then the WGT624 v2 is my recommendation, I leave that on for months at a time with no problems at all.

 

Sounds like exactly my issue, how do I find the 'location' of the camera?

Not tried the DVD yet yet, I'm away from home base but will get back on Saturday so I'll try the DVD reinstall then.

Thanks

 

It's in the screenshot that you posted.

I noticed that there are a few versions of the webcam from different manufacturer. There are different driver versions on Asus website. Make sure it's the correct version.

 

I tried the DVD and retried the drivers from the Asus downlaod site. None of them work, same error says the device cannot start.

When I check Windows Events, it seems to indicate that the 2KSETUP.EXE has a 'problem signature'.

Any ideas?

Remember I upgraded my OS to Vista Ultimate.

 

Update; I fixed it myself. Here's the steps...

1. In device manager right click the problem device (the camera with the yellow exclam) and choose 'Update Driver Software'.
2. At the next screen, click 'browse my computer'
3. Choose 'let me pick from a list
4. Choose the 'USB Composite Device', not the 'USB 2.0 xxxxx UVC webcam'

I then got successful install messages and it worked immediately.

 

Could you give me driver for finger print for asus m51Sn?
And I need audio drivers. That one which you writed doen't work.

 

Is the Asus M51 the same size and wt as the Asus M50?

 

They're built off the identical chassis, so it should be within a couple of ounces at most.

 

so same width/length/ht and similar wt.
same with the G50V?

 

Among all the submodels of the G50, yes. Could be some slight difference due to the BD vs SuperMulti dvd optical drives.

 

Well actually, no it won't since you didn't tamper with the hardware physically. Breaking the yellow VOID sticker on the CPU will though.

 

By chance, has anyone tried running Windows 98 SE or setting up a dual boot with Vista 32 on this laptop? Any luck finding some of the core drivers for the M51SN that work with Win 98? I'm considering the attempt at a dual boot to accommodate an old program...

 

So I went to a store here in Toronto which carried display models of the G50V-A1 and the M51, there is a noticeable size difference, the base chassis is not the same. It's over and an inch wider and half an inch thicker. Also the weight is noticeably different.

When I asked the sales associate to pull out the G50 for me to look at he told me it was a 17" laptop. I had to correct him. Obviously he was going on size impression, it was pretty thick and wide relative to the M51 he had pulled out first.

 

Please do not double post. You have already made a thread about this topic.

 

Hi guys. Is 174.31 driver the latest driver for XP? If not, where can I download the latest one. Thank you.

 

laptopvideo2go.com has the latest drivers, I believe.

 

The easiest way would be to use a virtual machine like VMware or VirtualBox or VirtualPC.

 

Tried that Lilas, virtual machines didn't work out in my case. I had to get Vista compatible software.... Good ole Microsoft.

 

Hello, what are the newest or best GPU drivers for M51SN with Windows XP installed?

Thanks.

EDIT: I tried to check new drivers from laptopvideo2go.com but i'm not sure which drivers are compatible and which are not, since M51SN was originally supposed to run under Windows Vista.