N56VZ-DH71/RH71 Owners Lounge - N56VZ w/Windows 8

I saw that you stated the DS71 is the windows 7 version and the DH71 is the windows 8. Just wondering if they are basically the same as the QS71? Minus the better processor (3630 vs 3610)

Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

 

Pretty much - that and the bilingual keyboard and it comes with a bag and mouse in the QS71 package - both should have backlit keyboards. The DH-71 is also $20 or more dollars cheaper and you don't need to buy a Windows 8 license if you decide to upgrade in future since the new model has it already.

Too bad about the key only applying to OEM Pro - that would have been a useful selling point.

Peter

 

Appreciate the help Peter. I think I'll just get the QS71 due to the windows 7 issue and possibly upgrade to 8 in the future

 

Thanks for the reply! I am definitely getting this bad boy come december. One other thing though:

How is the keyboard? Does it feel sturdy? Is there any flex? Is it made out of glass, metal, plastic? I worry that it'll wear off easily over time. Even though I use a mechanical keybaord at home, I still use the included one at school/work.

How was the clean install process, anything to take into acount like updating the bios or some obscure driver?

Still getting it, just preparing myself for the day C:

Thanks again!

 

Long time lurker, first time poster, I am almost in for this laptop and found that Tigerdirect and BH photo video had the N56VJ-DH71 for around $900 dollars. Any comments about if this is a good price?

 

Link please - no offense, but I think you may be mixing up models. That price is what I see the 630 version w/1080p or the 635 w/720p - not the 650 w/1080p. Great price though if so imho.

In response to DarkSan, the keyboard feels great to me, no flex, it's the same as the N56 from before, plastic with alum. base. I like it.

No problems so far with clean install.

I wanted to mention that the latest nVidia Windows 8 Beta driver solved all my issues with the projector and not remembering clone mode, etc.. Now it works just as well as Win7. I also did a wipe of the existing profiles when I did that install, so that might also have helped.

All the best,
Peter

 

Loving this laptop so far after spending a few days with it. I threw an SSD before even booting it up and the fresh Win8 install went fine and even pulled the key information automatically. The only thing that's even remotely disappointing is the trackpad's resistance towards the top, but I'm getting used to it after having used Apple's for so many years.

 

Here is the link
ASUS N56VJ-DH71 Laptop Computer - 3rd generation Intel Core i7-3630QM 2.4GHz, 8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M, 15.6 Full HD, Windows 8 64-bit at TigerDirect.com
or
ASUS i7-3630QM/8GB DDR3/1TB HD/Windows 8 N56VJ-DH71 B&H Photo
and you are right about the combinations. This is the 635/1080p combination although this does have Windows 8 loaded on it.
Since I am not a gamer, I really need this power for doing work on Lightroom, hopefully a 635 will not disappoint.

 

Whenever I don't back up a copy of my forum posts, that's the ones that get lost - typing again.

Welcome to the club snake . I realized now that previously my screen would never turn off or dim but now with the nVidia beta driver it works perfectly so I'm happy on that front.

Only thing bothering me is the buzzing from the subwoofer when scrolling - hopefully we can get that resolved.

Thanks,
Peter

P.S. vaishakhi, yep those are N56VJ models - so 635M - but they should do what you want, I'm going to recommend one of them to a friend of mine actually who likes my system but is also not a gamer - she wants a good quality system with this nice matte 1080p display - this should do well for her - just wish they had them up here in Canada so she wouldn't need to worry about cross border shopping (all the ones up here seem to be 1366x only)

 

Thank you, that puts my mind at ease. I ended up buying this system from Adorama who price-matched BHPhotovideo. Really looking forward to the laptop! This series was not even on my list of contenders (Sony S15, Lenovo Y580, or Dell 15Z) and yet I was impressed by what I saw on the reviews on this forum. So happy

 

Next on my agenda is to get a vinyl skin for the back. The only issue I have is figuring out the best dimensions since the top kind of guys up and I'm not sure how it would look that tall. Any thoughts? At work so I can't measure it unfortunately.

 

Anybody know how to fix below error?


Ok, i got this N56VZ with pre-installed Windows 8 on HDD.
So I removed the HDD and replaced with brand new SSD and I purchased a Windows 8 from Microsoft website.

During the setup, i got this error and there is no way I can type a different product key.
It seems like its detecting my product key embedded on the BIOS..

And the weird things is, I tried using a different laptop using the same SSD and same Windows 8 DVD and did'nt have this error.

Hope I got my point clear.

 

Does the Windows 8 version of N56VZ have the same RAM requirements as the Windows 7 version?
I'm thinking about upgrading to 16GB.
The Windows 7 version required RAM that had equal or better timings and equal frequency.

Will Crucial CT2KIT102464BF160B work with the N56VZ model(s)?

 

I don't know about vinyl skins or differences in Windows 8 16GB RAM requirements sorry.

What version of Windows 8 did you purchase? Pro, Enterprise or? You could do an upgrade within Windows 8 after you install "Windows 8" (ie. Core) on the SSD. It is trying to auto enter the PK from the BIOS and it isn't accepted for whatever version you are attempting to install. After you install, select that you want to Upgrade your Windows features and then enter your new PK and it should upgrade to your improved feature set.

All the best,
Peter

 

I purchased Windows 8 Pro x64, and my Pre-installed OS on HDD is also Windows 8 Pro x64..

Is there any way to disable this Auto Enter PK thing?

Thanks for your reply

 

Hey guys, I just got an N56VZ and I noticed a strange issue with my Touchpad. In Windows it behaves normally. Left click is left click and right click is right click. However, when I start a game, left click does nothing and right click left clicks. Does anyone else have this issue? I've tried multiple drivers and even without any driver and it always happens. Could this possibly be a hardware issue considering it works fine in Windows?

 

Are you sure it was Windows 8 Pro x64? As far as I know, no N56VZ comes with that - just Windows 8 Core - preinstalled. If it was Pro x64 already, then why are you trying to install a new key of it? That would just be wasting a license for no purpose. I must be missing something here...

What game? I have not noticed that myself. Maybe the game is loading it's own key/control set that you can modify within it.

Peter

 

@CCz_Cataphract
Hi CCz, did you try Advanced Tokens Manager utility on your upgraded N56VZ, to read Product Key?
Josh Cell Softwares: Advanced Tokens Manager - The Activation Backup Solution

Since you are the only guy I know to have knowledge of his pre-installed Windows 8 Product Key (encrypted on BIOS by Asus), you could check if the tool is effective to read it.
As you know, the other commonly used "PK finder" utilities can't do that on Windows 8 so far.
It could be useful to know the Product Key (although it shouldn't be mandatory for installation or reinstallation, according to your experience).

 

Hi guys, how are you?

I'm here because i saw a video on youtube about ASUS N56VZ with Windows 8 booting from Vertex 4 SSD in about 6 second(wow).
I have the same configuration, but mine it's much lazy, 16sec to desktop (not start screen). So imagine my reaction!
I tried to find what settings are need to be done in order to achieve the same results.
Well... I fond them, but it appears that I don't have the same options like the other guys from the videos and tutorials.
Restarting from Windows 8 Advanced Settings for UEFI, it doesn't get me to the nice graphical interface of UEFI, it gets me to the normal (F2) BIOS instead.
The problem is that not even my BIOS have the same options like i saw in tutorials: Secure Boot or anything about UEFI is entirely missing.
My laptop have a different code: ASUS N56VZ-S4264D and compared to CCz_Cataphract's from first post it's the same except it came with FreeDOS, Multi DVD-RW and another version of BIOS (204 i think) but i updated to 211 before installing Windows 8 x64.
I don't know what to do. Does my laptop not supporting UEFI? Can any one help me, please?

Thanks in advance,
Liviu


P.S. After searching several hours on the internet I found some more information in order to Enable UEFI.
1. Partition have to be with GPT instead on MBR
2. Windows 8 have to be installed with UEFI/EFI activated
3. Secure Boot have to be enabled

1) I checked with Disk Management and diskpart and both show GUID Partition Table (GPT). I remember from installing the Windows that he keeps making 4 partitions automatically and now I know why.
2) I checked the Windows 8 to see if its UEFI/EFI activated using "bcdedit /enum all": Windows Boot Manager returns as "bootmgfw.efi" and Windows Boot Loader returns as "winload.efi" which means that Windows 8 is UEFI/EFI activated.
3) Using “confirm-SecureBootUEFI” command in PowerShell return as "FALSE" so no Secure Boot.

 

Hey all!

I have been doing a lot of research on all of the current laptops because after 4 years I'm finally back in the market. Really wanted the xps 15, but with so many poor reviews it seems like a waste of good money. I'm really close to pulling the trigger on this one because it has great specs. Have a couple questions though. I noticed that the price point is very low for what you're getting. Why is this? Anything else in the same class is $500 more. Is this due to the HDD vs. either an hdd + sata or SSD you find in the more expensive computers? Is the build quality cheaper like the plastic you find in an Acer aspire? That's the model I am coming from and it leaves a lot to be desired. If the only significant difference is the hard drive, would it be difficult to switch out for an ssd? Do you lose anything program wise if you do it? Do you have to buy another copy of win 8 if you go the ssd route? Thanks for the help!

Jarod

Sent from my A200 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yep it got my key exactly - it works .

Will try to reply to the other posts soon but have to get to bed now.

I may make a video of what options I have in my BIOS, including Fast Boot to compare.

Peter

 

Thanks!
Good to know that everyone is able to know his pre-installed W8 Product Key without to be forced to ask to manufacturer, in case he needs it.

 

It's an excellent quality machine, much better than any just about any Acer I've ever seen. It's a bit heavier than an ultrabook - but at 6lbs it's excellent. Of course it is $500 more than similar systems without the dGPU or 1080 HQ Matte Panel. It's hard to compare unless everything is identical.

About the SSD: Please click on "<< First" at the bottom of the page and start reading .

Happy to be of service . I don't usually ask (pretty sure I never have) but feel free to "Add to Rep" if you like or Like - or both - I don't know what people do on the board anymore - but it can help in some situations and half this thread is responses to your questions/requests freesailor .

All the best,

Peter

 

Thanks Peter for the answer. This laptop market has gotten ridiculous with so many choices, it's hard to know what's what.. and even junk laptops have a positive following, so trying to find good info is well... hard. You can directly compare this laptop to the XPS 15 I think based on specs... and it seems like this outperforming it. Granted you have a better GPU, no screen issues, it seems to get wifi ok, and so far no issues with over-heating and throttling down to 1.2gz due to overheating during use. Only big difference I see is the lack of the msata, which can be cured by swapping out the HDD for an SSD anyways.... easy enough to do on this laptop too..

Not to mention, for same specs, this laptop is about $500 cheaper. Which is a big plus.

 

Interesting tidbit of info today.. I talked to Xotic asking about the Asus n56vz-rh71... I was told that they have discontinued that model, and instead are selling the N56VJ-DH71 model, with the GT 635 graphics card. Anyone else heard this, and have info on why they would have done that? It basically makes this great setup worthless....

 

Hi Luviu,

I only just saw your additional information, I didn't realize you edited your post 16 hours after you made it and it was not a page behind the convo.

Were you able to get it to work? I had BIOS 211 (though my 211 may be newer or different from other N56 211's) to start with, and even after a reinstall, etc.. I have it working. It has a 'Fast Boot' option built into the BIOS along with the UEFI/Legacy options and Secure Boot as well. I wonder if the N56VZ-DH71 and other Windows 8 models worth with this Secure Boot option and the older N56's won't get it and therefore the Fast Boot and UEFI functionality.

I also noticed the N56VZ-RH71 seems to be discontinued many places. I don't know if that's because it will be specified as N56VZ-DH71 from now on or if it's something else though. Hopefully they will keep the 650 - at least 2 other people I spoke to about getting other ASUS laptops have seen mine and decided it's exactly what they want rather than any other laptop out there.

Peter

 

@ CCz_Cataphract

Hi Peter,
No I didn't, thx for reply though. After few days of searching about this problem I gave up. I found someone interesting thing that I can try, but the difficulty was too much for me because they didn't offer an tutorial. I understand that I can flush my BIOS with an modded one that has more options set to "show".
I tried to reinstall the BIOS but no matter what version I choose, an error appeared, something about version and date. Reading some more about this I found that in order to reinstall it I have to downgrade first. A bit tricky because I didn't find an explicit guide for my laptop.
Here is a picture exactly as my BIOS except the "UEFI Boot" its entirely missing, only "PXE ROM" is shown.


P.S. Is the a way to get the fancy ASUS EFI BIOS Utility - EZ Mode on my laptop instead of the legacy one?

 

Not that I know of sorry - I tried looking into getting such an EFI EZ Mode working myself a few weeks ago but couldn't find a way to do it with what I have. You also don't seem to have a 'Fast Boot' option (it appears when I select UEFI and disappears if something else). I hope they will add this in for all N56 owners, I've suggested to friends to get this and some got the Win7 version of the laptop - it would be unfortunate for them not to have this

Peter

 

Hi CCz_Cataphract,

Thank you for this very interesting and informative thread. I am considering buying a variant of N56VZ-DH71. I have a question that you hopefully may able to answer. The model I am thinking of buying comes with 1TB 5400RPM HDD (I know you had a 7200RPM HDD). Do you think it is worthwhile to change into a SSD? It will probably cost me an extra $350 ($250SSD+$100 Win8 DVD).
Thank you very much!

 

Hey guys,

I just bought a N56vz-rh71 and merged the C drive with the D: Data drive using a program called EaseUS Partition Master. I reformatted the D drive and now the recovery partition is showing up as unallocated space. Was the recovery partition on the D: drive? The EaseUS software was showing it as its own 20GB partition and I didn't think it would delete by formatting the D drive. Is there any way I can recover it?

 

Hey!

I've bought the N56VZ in the UK and it's great (but lack of backlit keyboard grrr)
I've got a few question though if someone could help me out:

1. Recovery Disc? or lack of. There's only a driver DVD, and I understand Win8 has a 'refresh' function built in, but what do I do if my hard drive fails and I buy a replacement SSD/HD?
2. What's with the subwoofer noise when scrolling through webpages/docs. Sometimes it makes the noise sometimes it doesn't.
3. Is the asus instant on, set to 'on' by default? as my laptop boots ridiculously fast for a 5400rpm HD!
4. I've uninstalled most of the asus bloatware, are there any drivers I need to download? I've got Nvidia beta so far.
5. What do you make of win8? I'm warming to it, but there's still a few bugs here and there, and the metro aps lack of functionality is staring to annoying me.

*btw I've been browsing the other n56 threads, but there are so many pages! so sorry if these Q's have been answered!

 

Glad it's helping you . Why would it cost so much for the SSD? I got a 120GB Vertex 3 SSD on Friday for $50 - enough for the OS etc.. the rest of the media goes on my HDD that I put in the ODD bay. You do not need a new Win 8 DVD - the license goes with the BIOS, you just need a copy of a Win8 DVD or USB flash disc to do the install.

No the Recovery parition is not on the D drive. I used Disk Management (part of Windows) to merge my C: and D: drives with no problem. It may not be showing the Recovery Parition properly because it is hidden - what does Disk Management say?

How fast is your 5400rpm system booting by default? What N56VZ model # is it exactly that it doesn't include a backlit kb?

You'll want to download the Win8 ISO online or get a copy of the DVD off someone, that's what you'll want. My Win7 systems didn't come with proper DVDs either - you can make a Recovery Drive as I did, but even that doesn't do what it needs to on another HDD or the SSD.

You may want to customize your touchpad more - up to you - otherwise the rest should be there.

I like Win8, pretty fast, Metro is a bit buggy in ways - only thing that bugs me is hitting the upper left corner bringing up those apps - I go over there pretty regularly and maybe one time out of 50 I actually want that to show up - but getting used to it.

Peter

 

Thanks for your reply. Here's a screenshot of disk management.

 

Ya, mine is identical - except the 20.00GB drive at end shows as "Healthy (Recovery Parition)"

It looks like that software did a bad job - I'd use Disk Management in future. For me I personally don't need the Recovery Partition - I find it next to useless except for returning/debugging issues with ASUS Support.

Speaking of that, please anyone experiencing the clicking from the subwoofer on scrolling, etc.. report it to ASUS - I have an open ticket on it but they need it to be reported by multiple users for it to be actively investigated and fixed.

Thanks,
Peter

 

Thanks.

ASUS - N56VZ-S4242. is the model,the UK ones don't have a backlight, it's only been released in the UK a little under a month, could only get VM models otherwise!

I followed the recovery programme and put it on a USB Stick, it's only 270mb. The option to "copy a recovery partition from your PC" needed 16GB !!
Couldn't find anything about the Win8 ISO. I'm just worried that if my HD fails I'll have to buy another copy of Win8 >.<

 

Thank you for the quick answer! I would really like to keep the ODD if possible. Win 8 ISO is not easy to come by. Here in Australia full version of Win 8 is not commonly available either. It is ridiculous that the so called recovery disc seems useless if it cannot replicate the system.

 

The recovery drive without the recovery partition is just a collection of commonly used recovery tools (like scan disk, etc...)

The license is in the bios - you just need an I so from somewhere. If you have another comp eligible you can get 14.99 offer for Pro. But you just need that iso....

 

I have just ordered N56VZ-S4242 15.6" Laptop in UK. I wanted to upgrade the memory to 16 GB, I did check in the store whether this laptop is upgrade-able and they said yes. When I check RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.com/uk to check compatibility for N56VZ it says max memory is 8 GB.

Does anyone know whether this laptop support more than 8 GB. The processor surely does i guess.

thanks
Ashwin

 

Hmmm. ISO, ISO, where art tho ISO!
I've been looking at the MS community, and there are a few posts about backups and recovery... no definitive answer yet.
Will have to email asus and keep looking at the forums.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...7-legal-windows-8-downloads-like-7-vista.html

 

It does. It's just that Asus locked the frequency to 1333, locked the bus:dram ratio, and set specific latency timings in the bios. Instead of making it automatic, using the dynamic bus-speed option, and having spd determined timing.

So what happened was that someone bought a pair of ram-chips with higher latency timing, put them in, the computer doesn't boot. And they call asus and say "I bought 16 Gb ram, and the computer doesn't boot". And Asus says: "AAAAAHHHH! What's going on, what is this "RAM" you speak of!". And they panic and say on the specification page now that max 8 Gb ram is supported. And say, to everyone who want support for add-ons and upgrades, that you get no support if you don't use the stock setup.

The thing is that if you bought a new ram-chip with 8Gb, And that had incompatible timing, then the laptop won't boot either. Just don't tell Asus, or they'll have a crisis and say their laptop is incompatible with ram in general or something.

So yes, it supports 16Gb. But on the standard bios settings, you need ram with the same or better latency timing supported for 1333Mhz. There's a thread in the asus subforum where the helpful guy from gentechpc helped test a few types that work. The problem so far is that you won't have better timing than what is there already.

(I was going to make a custom bios setup to get around this. But I haven't found a way to reset the cmos, so I'm not going to risk bricking my laptop over this. I can't afford to send it in for two weeks every time I make a mistake and the thing doesn't boot. Same thing with anyone who install it - if the ram-timing suddenly fails, we need a way to reset the cmos anyway. So .. difficult.)

 

This is interesting. Computer Upgrade King on Amazon has listed a TON of different spec'ed machines. I would imagine they are the ones who are upgrading them, but is the CPU upgradable? They saying they have 2.4 - 2.8gz chips available on a multitude of configurations.. 16GB Ram, 8 GB ram, 128GB SSD, 750GB HDD, 256 SSD, 512 SSD.. Again, I assume they are doing it, which is interesting given these machines dropped off the market about a week ago.

Amazon.com: asus n56vz-rh71: Electronics

 

Looks like the design uses a socket which would make it upgradable, but it looks like a complete disassembly is required.

 

Hi all, thanks for all the great posts - it has been interesting reading this thread.

I've rejoined the laptop world after a years absence (well apart from my work win7 laptop, but that doesn't count). I purchased the N56VZ-S4242 15.6" Laptop in the UK which has arrived pre-installed with Windows 8. Now as much as I like new OSs I'd very much like to have the system as a dual boot with linux being the other OS on the system.

In my day this would involve burning an ISO onto a CD and booting from the CD (after tweaking BIOS if necessary to boot primary from the CD drive). Then GRUB would do the rest for the boot load and I could pick from Windows or Linux to boot from upon powering up the laptop.

No more! I've been doing some reading up and I think that my system is using UEFI and secure boot. Although this appears to secure windows installations the cynic in me doesn't half think that Microsoft / suppliers are making it hard to install other OSs intentionally.

So I am pretty new to this so bear with me. Firstly, the system won't boot from CD by default so my natural thought is to try and get into BIOS to change this. There is no information on boot-up that tells me what button to press to get into BIOS. The manual says F2, ASUS support say F2 and some dude on the internet says 'DEL' - none of these work. I've tried all sorts of keys/combinations but every time it just boots to Win8. Should there even be a BIOS even with UEFI?

When I try to install Ubuntu from windows - via Wubi - this installs OK but on boot up it reports some MBR error and I can only get to Windows 8 via what I assume is the UEFI interface. (It has ubuntu as an option but this fails to load with the same MBR error).

So I think secure boot is enabled and the disk is GUID so my linux install can't cope with it (how's that for a simplistic view!)

Does anyone know how I beat this - i.e. get linux on my system as a dual boot option alongside windows 8? Any help appreciated or general pointers in the right direction. I thought putting in a SSD drive would be my biggest challenge with this purchase - never thought it would turn out to be getting linux on it....!

Cheers
Rob

 

Classically it is "del" to enter the bios, this is true for many desktops, however for some reason it's F2 for many notebooks including asus.

However with UEFI enabled you have to tell windows to let you into the bios:

Access the BIOS/CMOS in Windows 8 -Tutorial- - YouTube

 

Just a quick question. How do I get drivers to install in windows 8? I have downloaded a couple from the asus website, but can't tell if they are installing. I get the zip file, open, go into the exe file to start it, it start through the process, then bam, it says it's done. Also, do you have to uninstall the old drivers first, or can you install over what is there?

Lastly, do you have to update each version of bios one at a time, or will the last version have all the info from the previous versions??

 

One more question. How do I know if which drivers need updated? Doesn't windows have a utility for that?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

You only really need to update a driver if you are having issues. The exception is graphics drivers which you can get straight from AMD or Nvidia which can give performance increases.

You can tell devices that don't have drivers installed in device manager.

You tend to install drivers over the old set, and it if it says it is done then it likely is, not all drivers are as complicated as graphics drivers

 

Just got the n56vj. Wondering about dvd recovery disks....how do I make them. I don't see theA1 Recovery Program in windows 8.

I haven't tried to boot into the recovery partition....I think I read you can make disks there but some have had poor luck in creating a good image backup.

 

Thanks Meaker, you're a star.

Finally got there in the end - I've got Windows 8 and Ubuntu as boot options under GRUB 2. It wasn't half a struggle though. Even after I managed to disable 'Secure Boot' ("PC Settings", "General", "Advanced Settings", restart, "Troubleshoot" "Restart to UEFI Firmaware") the 'BIOS' bootup options didn't not let me select the DVD-ROM until a few reboots letter; eventually I was able to kick off the Ubuntu installer.

And then once Ubuntu was installed I tried to boot via GRUB2 boot loader into Windows 8. This would only work after running this application from apt-get in linux:
grub2 - Windows 8 wont boot after installation of 12.10 - Ask Ubuntu

I've always thought Microsoft to be OK but I think they've gone a step to far on this one - it's something Apple would be proud of. It feels like they are trying to prevent other OSs being installed on hardware that I've purchased. Who are they to dictate what I run on my new laptop? i've read that on ARM hardware you can't even disable Secure Boot, how much further will they go?

https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/588498-uefi-secure-boot-big-hassle-questionable-benefit