N56vz review and owners lounge - Techno Art

Thanks for the replies both of you. I am at the same speed as you then Kourosh - I have no password so it skips the Windows login screen in less than a second and I was timing until the mouse cursor stopped showing loading (usable desktop) - it gets to the login screen at about 19-20 secs.

I'm not sure why yours is so much faster mirceav, even before when I had it on IDE mode it was about 15 seconds (and I also do not have Live Update or much other bloatware) - maybe my OCZ Vertex 4 is just a lot slower than yours - or I'm wondering if I need to do a wipe of the SSD through it's utilities in order to restore the speed to be what it was before (ie. jump to desktop before the balls combine on Windows logo boot, that's what it had been doing before).

The one thing else that is bugging me is that there is no Caps Lock light or indicator on this laptop to know if it is on or not - but that's rather minor. I remember a software one I had on my previous ASUS laptop would cause issues when gaming (it would blank the screen for several seconds when it tried to show a "Caps Lock On" overlay) - I'd rather not have to deal with that again though.

What is much more annoying is the throttling on battery when gaming - I was able to reproduce it easily by loading up a game of Civ 5 and then trying to scroll around the map - three seconds it scrolls silky smooth, just as when plugged in, then for the next six or so seconds it is very choppy and then smooth again. then choppy, etc.... It's pretty much unplayable and quite annoying. When it starts to be smooth again it's almost like it hits a wall, jumps and then works great for three seconds - and then it slows right down again.

How did others solve this? The way it was spoken of before it sounds like it is not an issue for others, I'll look for the quote but it was such a simple thing to check - I'm really hoping other people did find a way around this rather than just never having tried to game on battery and therefore not having observed it.

Thanks,
Peter

 

Doing some googling I found these:

Performance Mode Bug?

Y480 - Slow / smooth graphics on battery - Page 3 - Lenovo Community

I'm quite hoping Nipsen is right and it is the CPU/GPU settings and can therefore be worked around - how can I set the CPU to always be full power? I set it to be always 100% in Power4Gear, but what else do I need to do? When I check HWInfo64 right now it shows it boosting to 3093 Mhz when I alt+tab - the game is still running in the background at the moment.

I understand it will drain the battery quickly and I don't mind setting it to not be quite full speed - it can be a bit slower - but I'd like it to be consistent at whatever sped it is rather than jumping around all the time.

Thanks,
Peter

P.S. To the person who was asking about HWInfo64 not showing the nVidia GPU, I can confirm that now that I have it reinstalled it does show it - I am using the latest drivers from nvidia rather than the ones from ASUS, that could make a difference - but it definitely shows both the Intel GPU and nVidia one on sensors.

 

Just bought this and first thing I did was a clean windows install, and then installed all drivers... Everything went great, but then I noticed that most of the fn-keys didn't work... Any ideas?

 

The XP mode virtual machine for win 7 only works with Premium and ultimate.

 

Hi all, I'm having the same fps drops on battery as @Peter. Please see my most recent post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/664468-asus-n56vz-ds71-first-impressions-87.html

Any ideas? I would also prefer consistently lower fps over stuttering.

 

We're talking about VPC - it named the link the name of the page, but you want to click "Don’t need XP Mode and want VPC only? Download Windows Virtual PC without Windows XP Mode." and grab that for free

If you have a Windows XP License just install and use it as you would with any Virtual PC - no problem .

Thanks Kourosh, sorry to hear you're having it too but hopefully we can find a solution.

Thanks,
Peter

 

You have to install the "Asus keys" programs. Should be on the driver disk. You kind of also need the chipset/p4g programs as well. If you want reasonably good battery life, etc.

----

You know what - I thought at first that I wasn't able to replicate the stuttering. I know I saw it once, but not the next time. Because I could consistently force 3dmark11 to get all cores to 3.1Ghz/boost, without any problems. I'm also running an overclock on the gpu. So I was completely sure that there was a lot to go on. And I knew the i7 will draw a laughable amount of power when all cores hit boost (as in 45w+).

So when I got that to work - with the overclock, I wrote off the possibility that the laptop could be hitting some sort of throttle at boost+gpu-max if the system couldn't draw enough power from the battery.

But then I tried it again while having a second monitor active via hdmi. While having wifi enabled, and streaming something there. And the keyboard light.. and a charging controller. And bluetooth. And this adds about 10-15.. a bit more W to the power-draw. If you have the disc-drive running and the camera as well, have bluetooth enabled - you're drawing a lot of power. And that was enough to make the total draw hit 65w. And past 65w, if I stay there for more than a very short time, cause a complete freeze, like what you're describing. Then it loads the cores up to normal again, before they hit boost, and the same freeze again.

When I disconnect the hdmi and the controller and run it again, with the monitor at normal light, and so on, then I get up to slightly below 65w again - and then it works, with boost.

So what you want to do to avoid that is just have the processors locked at 50% or 85% max, and 5-0% low. And that would be it. Slightly lower performance, but the same consistent performance.

You could also probably adjust the core affinity for the game to typically get just one or two cores up on boost, so not all the cores hit boost eventually. This should probably also lower the draw a little bit when boost is enabled, and give you better performance in a game anyway.

So essentially, if you want to be safe - no overclock on the gpu, and prevent the cpu from going to boost. Turn off bluetooth, disc-drive, camera, keyboard light, extra stuff on the usb ports. But it is some sort of panic function that kicks in when the components don't get power.. And not a throttle in the normal sense. Because it's perfectly possible to run with full burn on all cores and not get the freeze.

I guess the ssd also helps - draws very little power also on load. So yes.. the power-draw. That was it. Amount of stuff at the same time. Not enough juice.

And I'm guessing that .. a lot of people are going to run into that even on battery mode when the cpus are throttled, if the disc-drive and an external drive or controller is connected. Because that draws a lot of power..

..I was definitely wrong about the processor speed causing the freeze. Sorry about that..

 

I did some (not all!) optimization from this guide and I disable logo and other unnecesarry boot options from BIOS. Now with no GUI boot I have a black screen for some time and then the Windows interface (also no logon). I don't know if black screen is only BIOS boot time or includes Windows, I just know it's by far the longest time from boot.
BTW, I put 125% in Display, at 100 text is a little to small for me.
As gaming, I try for a little time Black Mesa and Torchlight, both work excellent.
I wished I have Display Port for high resolution external monitor but you can't have all...
Mircea

 

I have N56VM and it HAS backlit keyboard.

 

oh wow, really? What model, from the UK?

 

mine hasnt got one ,uk model ,does have the full hd screen though ,which is very good indeed ,cost me £630 with work discount

 

By the way, the I7-3630QM model (at least for NA) is N56VZ-QH71-CB. The price listed is actually $50 less than the 3610 models I've seen and it definitely has FHD. The CPU scores approximately 6% better for the same TDP (2.3GHz vs. 2.4GHz). Not sure about what all the other differences are though (e.g. USB, etc..) between the models (if any others).

Working now but hope to try what nispen mentioned later.

Thanks,
Peter

 

I tried tonight gaming on ultra graphics settings with the following:

1. Power4Gear Max CPU set to 80%
2. Power4Gear Min CPU set to 5%
3. Power4Gear "Maximum Performance" CPU setting.
4. Webcam and optical drive off
5. Absolutely nothing plugged into the laptop
6. No Bluetooth
7. Wireless Lan ON (playing online)
9. SSD drive installed (no HDD)
10. No GPU overclock
11. Most recent official GPU drivers from NVidia installed.

Experienced exactly the same FPS cycling, between 9 FPS, 25 FPS, and 45 FPS.

What free utility can monitor GPU clock speed and power usage?

I suspect it's the GPU.

One bit of evidence is that the Speedfan temperature chart shows the GPU temps cycling between 55 and 60 degrees celcius at regular intervals. The chart is a seesaw. That the GPU is regularly downclocking and then revving back up would be consistent with the temp chart.

Assuming this theory is right for the moment, is there anything left to try? Also, assuming it's the GPU, why doesn't Nipsen's perform this way? Could it be that overclocking actually fixed the problem somehow? I don't know much about overclocking, but since it involves overriding the default GPU clock settings, perhaps it fixed whatever default setting was causing the card to perform strangely on reduced power?

(Again, to those of you just tuning in, the strange part is not that the FPS is worse on battery power, but rather that it cycles between fast => slow => medium => fast => slow every five seconds or so.)

 

Hey guys, I'm having a huge problem, and I need you guy's help. My N56vz keeps freezing for a second or two. At first I thought it was just the speakers (since I noticed this during songs, and the amount of freezing during games was very minimal) but now the problem seems to persist longer. For example, i'll be playing music then the music will sound all crunched up, as if fixed on the last sound. Same with games. Sometimes I even expect it to crash, but it never has. At the current time, it's a nuisance, but I need to know if there is some way of fixing this, otherwise I'll have to return it, which is a shame since everything else is wonderful.

 

..before you return it - think you guys could download Hwinfo64, open up the sensors tab. Double-click on the "charge rate" entry while on battery.. And leave that running in the background while running a game or program that you experience the stuttering in..? Should give you a small graph; might learn something from what that looks like.

 

@nipsen TY, will try that now. What am I looking for specifically? I don't think this a return-for-exchange issue, because I think people with graphics lag on battery are by far in the majority. For example, see this video: Stutter on Asus n56vz gt 650m running DirectX10 in 3DMark Vantage - YouTube (with commentators at the bottom saying "No the battery just doesn't deliver enough juice, it's not meant for 'hardcore gaming,'" and another: "I'm having graphical lag too when on battery. Frustrating. Something to do with throttling of the GPU or CPU or HDD limitation maybe."

So this is a return for a different laptop issue. But I don't think there's a better option for an 15" 1080p, attractive, silent, heat-efficient laptop. Perhaps the UX51VZ, but that is more expensive, and could quite possibly have the same problem.

So, really, it's probably a "live with it" issue until a) we find a fix b) asus/Nividia comes up with a fix, or c) a better third-party battery becomes available.

 

You're looking for drastic drops in the power-draw when you hit some upper limit. Should be 65-67w, perhaps lower. Then there's that panic switch, everything locks, power draw drops to, say.. 25w.. then goes up again - repeat. And then you get that weird freeze, or fps-drop down to 5-6fps.

By the way, re. random comments on youtube.. an alienware standard battery also has that same output limit. Just saying. Like I said in the review - it genuinely surprised me that I didn't get throttled by default when on battery (that the processor was limited on the hardware level, and the vbios cut the clock-speed in half, etc), and that the performance was consistent. Because that just doesn't happen. I haven't seen that on any rig up to now, before kepler.

 

Hi,
I want to buy the Asus N56VZ. However, so close to the Windows 8 release I think it is possible that Asus releases a new revision of this great notebook. So far I did not find any info regarding this matter. What do you guys think? Buying now or waiting for a possible new Revision?

 

I have the same problem... I'm reading this thread 10 times a day like a zombie. I was thinking to buy 700Z5C but i7 version is above my budget. Y580 looks like a chinese copy of russian second world war tank. I just miss msata on N56 and I would be sold.

Sent from my HTC Sensation

 

1 page back. New model coming out very soon with faster proc. It was also disused 3 pages back. Expecting it out for W8 release.

Peter

 

Well, a small question. From what I read it's not a problem to leave battery installed when using on AC power because when battery is charged it will be not overchage (true for almost any notebook). But the biggest problem is heat in battery compartment; do you know a program to measure battery temperature? I know is a very cool notebook on the outside but I don't know how is temperature in battery compartment.

 

I decided to stop drooling over this and actually bought one for myself. I figured it would be easier to deal with possible returns, reinstalls and other hiccups when I don't absolutely need a laptop. I did get lucky as this unit has only a slightly warped chassis between the touch pad and the keyboard plus a small gap on the right side of the touch pad.

Temperatures with web surfing are 45-55°C CPU, 35-40°C GPU and the chassis is around the temperature of my hand, maybe just a tad warmer. With Crysis the CPU hovers around 75-80°C (83-87 max), the GPU is about 70-75°C and the chassis is warm all the way to the left from the right ctrl. I guess that's not alarming considering the hardware temps? I don't really mind an added hand warmer -function if the internals are okay. It should keep my left hand in shape

However, there is one software problem: the screen switches to a brownish tint after I restart the laptop. A recalibration fixes it so it's probably some driver overwriting the system settings. Any ideas?

E: It seems my "subwoofer" reacts to mouse movements and crackles even when idle The quiet fan-like noises I've noticed before could also be from the speakers. Is my memory correct in that the random buzzes are not something that can be fixed with software? I think I'll just disconnect the sub when it's not in use if the stuff I mentioned above aren't something to return the machine for. The place I bought this from is out of stock so it could be a hassle...

 

I just got ssd and I am going to install clean windows... Is there any list of asus software that I should get to get max performance (all drivers of course, but what else?)

 

Have you still McAfee trial antivirus installed on your laptop?
If yes, uninstall it (or at least configure it: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- Sound problem ).

McAfee it's known to cause trouble to sound and video in N56.

Otherwise, look at these suggestions (although I'm not sure it's applicable to your issue):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...k-sound-popping-high-pitched-tone-squeal.html

 

New W8 versions, with i7-3630QM CPU, can be taken for granted, just google for "N56VZ 3630QM" within last month.

Since Asus has planned an event on October 23rd in NY to present its new W8 ultrabooks an tablets, I hope they'll tell something regarding N56 series too.
If not, I suppose that we'll have to wait just a few more days (W8 official launch is October 25th).

 

New NVIDIA drivers are out. 306.97
Useful for Win 8 users.

 

Then go for Dell. They have really good offer.

 

But I need good graphic card and this i won't find in 15R SE. XPS became expensive and faulty toy.

Sent from my HTC Sensation

 

Hwinfo64? It's not a problem on this laptop. Hasn't it been a while since any portable device had the organic electrolyte cells that generated heat like that?

Congrats on the third n56vz with no build issues If it is a pop/crackle that turns up even if there are no sounds, etc. Try looking at the windows system sounds. The amplifier physically turns off when you don't play anything on the speakers, and turn on again only when something happens. So if it's a very short sound (like the clicks in the default sound scheme), you get these amazingly annoying clack/crackle sounds.

Just make sure you install ad-aware, and get yourself a media-player that doesn't take over and share your entire system on the internet.

Actually, disabling windows media-sharing in general would be an idea.

And disable the page-file. That's going to save a lot of grief.

Might want to upgrade the hd4000 driver too. It should have some fixes for some of the nasty artefacts you get in OpenGL contexts, or when using video overlays.

Firmware on the ssd..

What else -- go through the services.msc list, and disable the things you don't actually need? Turn off realtime inspection and "browser protection" from any anti-virus and anti-spyware programs..

*nods* Had something like that on a different laptop. Somehow kept constant surveillance on the page-file and all the system libraries - with real-time priority..

Is McAfee Free bundled with the software on the oem image?

 

Btw, some Xcom gameplay recorded in 1920x1080. On battery power



Unbelievably awesome game, by the way. Do yourself and the entire industry a favour and go and buy it. Do it now.

 

You don't know how relieved I am to have a "good" unit. The popping was present at first but I turned off the unnecessary system sounds so it's no more.

Any ideas about the random screen settings? The screen went brownish a couple of times even when in use. I noticed that it also returns back to normal if I go to the calibration and just cancel it.

After giving it some more thought, the sub-crackle is most likely random signal coming from the port itself or a bad speaker/jack. I have no idea how it manages to make a hardly audible squeal when I move my external mouse or a louder, "longer" crackle when I scroll down a page, even with the touch pad. Without signal it sounds like a very quiet Harley It's weird but I'll live with it. The "sub" was more or less a bonus after all.

I did some aural investigation and the quiet fan-like noises I mentioned seem to come from the hdd! So, it's the needle moving around? That might need some getting used to as the sound is similar to white noise...

 

Hey Kourosh,

I wasn't able to do too much testing because of work being crazy lately, but I did a quick test, I mean to do more, but this is what I noticed.

If I set the CPU to the range of 5% to 40% the stuttering did not happen and it was smoothish - not perfect as on AC, but quite good without the inconsistent jumps. When I increased it back to 5%-100%, it started to do the slow, fast switches every 5 seconds again.

This was with Civ V and on an earlier part of the game than when I last tested - I'll see if I can get a chance to try it again tonight and report back, but you may want to try lowering your CPU speed down to that range (or lower) and see if that helps with keeping it consistent.

Thanks,
Peter

P.S. This is a bit of a tangent, since you were mentioning battery, but correct me if I'm wrong, but the UX51Z has got to throttle - CPU 35W, GPU 45W (w/GDDR5) = 80W then add to that the screen, HDD (maybe this is why the HDD model is not offered?), SSD, USB, etc.. all on a 90W Power Adapter that you don't want to be constantly pushing to max - it's got to throttle. I think Mike even reported it did on AC w/some games and anything else going on in the background. True the lower CPU TDP may help it not throttle on battery - but that's where us lowering the CPU level can help us mimic that.

Though the larger Wh battery of the UX51Z provides for more current when it is full (in addition to the extended run time) - even in our case, the effect of this, if it is the battery not providing enough power, would be worse the more drained the battery is (and why it was harder to reproduce when my battery was full than when it was half drained when I first tested).

 

Weird. Sounds a bit like a borked intel overlay setting. Did you try reinstalling the hd4000 drivers? Maybe take a look in the control panel for the intel graphics as well.

Hdds sound like that, yes. WD disks with the long whining sound. Seagate specialize in groaning clacks.

...can't tell you how much I like ssd over this stuff.

 

@Peter Thank you for the tip. I gave reducing the max CPU to 40% try, but unfortunately the same issue remains. At least, it remains in Tribes: Ascend.

In addition to keeping max CPU down to 40%, I tried setting the processor control setting to "maximum performance," "moderate battery saving" and "maximum battery saving." Same results, though with one small difference: With each setting change that reduced the CPU usage, the FPS drop cycle between high, low, medium, and high became slightly less frequent. (The FPS woudl remain at the highest FPS for longer before throttling down.) Further, the band between FPS rates narrowed. For Example:

Max CPU 80% + Maximum performance: FPS 45 => FPS 7 => FPS 20 => FPS 45
Max CPU 40% + Maximum performance: FPS 35 => FPS 13 => FPS 26 => FPS 35
Max CPU 40% + Moderate (or Max) Battery Save: FPS 33 => FPS 15 => FPS 28 => FPS 33

Could it be that Tribes: Ascend is a particularly taxing game on hardware, requiring more battery power, and thus maxing out the battery's capabilities? I don't have any other games to try right now, so, for all I know, nipsen's game might work on my system.

---

About the keys and the trackpad. Does anyone else find the spacebar to be the noisest key?

Also, I've noticed that either my trackpack clicker has degraded after a week of use or it has always had an exceptionally loud left clicker. The right clicker makes a normal noise, and is fine. The left click, however, creates a loud "clack" noise just to the right of the trackpad (not sure how?). Another peculiar thing is that my right click function works from the bottom center of the trackpad all the way to the farthest bottom right corner. The left click, on the other hand, only works at the bottom center of the trackpad.

These types of issues really annoy me because, I admit, I'm a perfectionist, and because $1,250 justifies solid build quality.

I like this notebook a lot, so I've kept it past the return window. I can live with a trackpad clack noice by avoiding clicking and using tap-to-click instead. The spacebar isn't so bad. I can game on AC power. But it's all just a little upseting, and arguably these defects lower resale value as well.

If Asus offered macbook build quality at the macbook price -- with Windows OS of course -- I would have gone that route. Oh well, I'm happy on balance.

 

I have same noise from subwoofer when scrolling with mouse Any solution how to fix this bug ?

 

About to go to bed, but did you look at the link I posted a bit ago? This one: Y480 - Slow / smooth graphics on battery - Page 3 - Lenovo Community - the person does a similar set of tests to you - they found that disabling Phys-X had some effect - worth a shot. Definitely depending on the game, the utilization of CPU and GPU at same time and the amount, it could be much worse - that combined with how drained the battery is, etc.. - it can really add up.

For me, the left Alt for me is the noisiest key - depending on how I hit it it makes a very loud clacking sound - sometimes it happens all the time no matter how I touch it, but other times it goes back to normal unless I hit it 'just so.' Otherwise I'd agree about spacebar being slightly noisier than the others - but the Left Alt is by far louder and much more annoying to me. I wonder if it will get worse... - does anyone else have this issue?

My return window is open until Monday. I plan to play around some more with the laptop this weekend and see. I was testing out the sound today - wow, this thing sounds great . Can't beat my surround sound system of course, but it comes so close - when you plug in the sub the main speakers are able to increase their range so much, it's like the difference between night and day.

My screen is pixel perfect and aside from the key everything seems good - I'd like to have the extra boost of the I7-3630QM (how much do people think it would be in real world usage?) for the same or lower price and same power, but we don't know when that model is going to be available here exactly and I'll probably get one with more defects than this anyway.

My touchpad is very - annoying. I modded the drivers to give me edge scrolling, palm detect and to improve/unlock the other features but even still I find it jumping around my screen randomly when I type - I really should unlock the feature that turns it off as you type for a certain ms - though that isn't foolproof. It's interesting that I never had any issues like this with my old ASUS - maybe it's because this one has such a large touchpad that's sticking out of the case (even if only slightly?)

Thanks,
Peter

P.S.

Did you install Splendid? That was giving me issues with my old laptop sometimes in ways similar to what you describe.

 

Tribes: Ascend throws everything it can at the gpu with absolutely no reduction algorithm on the visible objects, or use any sort of overdraw reduction routines and so on. So it is going to suck the gpu for as much as possible.

But I don't think that's the problem. I've played The Witcher 2 on battery on this laptop. So we're looking at something else, I think.

What it could be is that the battery pack isn't providing a huge amount of power..? Possible. It's not a synthetic solution, it could have been damaged, maybe. So if you run hwinfo64 while on battery, so we could see what it looks like that might be helpful.

It also could be devices failing to go to power-save.

And also devices being forced to power-save when they shouldn't be.

We're talking about Windows here, so practically everything is possible.. Chipset drivers that somehow break, or power-profile settings getting overriden from the windows profile.. There's a very long list of things that /may/ go wrong. And cause something like what you're looking at here.

I'd try figuring out if you can draw around 60w before trying something else, though.. That could explain things. But on the other hand, I'd bet good money there's a device-driver for a mouse or something or other that has been installed earlier, that made some changes to the way the interrupts work. That was one possible source for people getting distortion on the soundcard for example. It crashed the response for the thread, which then caused the interference. Was basically a small program that didn't draw too much resources, but just locked some of them for too long.

Same with virus-programs and real-time monitors - they don't guess when you're going to battery, and the switch off as a courtesy, for example.. And then you could be having /just/ enough time on the bus to run the files twice when on AC. Things like that are a bit difficult to point out when they happen.. but they can happen, so it's a possibility.

 

@Peter Sorry to hear about your left alt key! Mine is as silent as the rest of my keys (except the nosier space bar).

I've skimmed the Y480 thread, but I should look at it more closely. I haven't yet tried changing PhysX settings.

@Nipsen HWInfo64 is pretty neat. Thank you for alerting me to this.

So I ran HWInfo64 Scanner with logging on. Then I played Tribes: Ascend for about 5 minutes with Power4Gear CPU settings set to maximum performance, max CPU set to 40%, min CPU set to 5%. Brightness: 5/10. Optimal drive off. Web cam off. Nothing plugged into laptop. Like usual, I did experience the FPS drops and cycling between FPS rates. Here are the battery Charge Rate results:

Spoiler

Charge Rate [W]
-21.307
-20.273
-20.119
-20.064
-35.09
-40.414
-34.397
-34.518
-34.65
-39.831
-38.819
-39.171
-38.544
-36.388
-33.814
-35.475
-34.683
-34.54
-48.587
-46.805
-62.524
-54.043
-60.984
-58.388
-60.093
-60.698
-45.98
-22.759
-23.65
-32.494
-34.518
-40.832
-36.872
-40.986
-36.069
-56.045
-60.522
-29.238
-29.887
-29.601
-30.074
-45.848
-46.926
-52.877
-52.393
-44.638
-50.633
-47.839
-54.12
-54.208
-54.549
-51.304
-48.147
-53.163
-54.846
-55.726
-53.229
-48.257
-53.438
-56.859
-58.696
-63.349
-32.846
-31.922
-31.702
-32.351
-48.653
-48.455
-52.646
-53.427
-54.131
-56.441
-47.509
-40.766
-35.112
-35.552
-36.267
-36.113
-36.157
-36.146
-36.674
-36.971
-42.878
-42.834
-48.433
-43.659
-47.96
-47.388
-49.401
-48.477
-51.81
-53.097
-54.197
-50.787
-49.214
-50.864
-53.889
-56.001
-56.771
-49.313
-55.275
-58.102
-60.082
-62.359
-61.875
-27.775
-29.744
-31.185
-49.203
-48.312
-35.662
-34.573
-34.54
-42.119
-35.255
-35.508
-45.936
-41.294
-33.913

Does this confirm battery throttling?

 

*nods* probably means your battery stops giving you a stable current around 62w draw. Then -> panic. I get the same at 65w.

Strange you get these jumps from over 40-50w, though.. ..if you ignore the 50+ readings, it looks normal on battery. So I'm wondering what might cause those peaks..

 

Yeah, that seems to be it. Some Google result mentioned the "S" symbol on the keyboard and, sure enough, that appears to be the cause. Almost all the stock settings on TVs are bad and now manufacturers "help" us on laptops too?

I have no prior experience with bloatware but the stuff on this laptop is just ridiculous. This is advertised as a multimedia laptop and it apparently has an overzealous color "correction" (read: crappening) program and a significant bass boost straight out of the box. The boost wasn't clear with the speakers but music sounded terrible with headphones. At least both programs can be turned off or uninstalled. I'll probably do the fresh "pirate" install of Win7 sometime down the road to get rid of most of the extra stuff.

 

Glad we got it figured Munkk

I realized this afternoon that my N56VZ was built in May - so it has to have the 202 BIOS and it did - reading up on the improvement I got excited - I also upgraded my nVidia drivers to the latest ones that came out this week.

My 3DMark score increased - from P2321 to P2323 - well within the margin of error - ah well.

What's more annoying though is I noticed that when I move my mouse it causes a low level buzzing sound to come out of the subwoofer. An example of it occurring is if you mouse onto and then past the "Scan my system" button on this page: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result - P2323 3DMarks (my 3DMark results page for the last test) - I know nipsen is too manly to use the woofer, but is anyone else experiencing this? Whether my mouse is on the left or right side it is the same.

Thanks,
Peter

P.S. The buzzing/hum for me is also quite audible if I scroll with my mouse (or the touchpad) or even just mousing between the 'Report' and 'Add to User Rep' graphics in a post - I hear it whether it is on the table or put up to my ear - very annoying imho. It is audible both when on AC or battery, whether any device is connected to the laptop or I'm just scrolling with the touchpad and the woofer is the only thing connected. I figure it must be worse on this one than on other people's or others would have to complain - unless no one uses the subwoofer...?

This is the noise: http://www.photoz.lt/test.mp4

Is it just Vaikis and I that hear this? Is this what you were hearing too Munkk?

Can anyone else please test this out and see if they get the buzzing too when scrolling or performing other tasks moving the cursor around the screen etc...? If it's just me and a couple others (ie. it's a rare defect) then that's one thing - but if this affects all units I'll call it into ASUS Tech Support and get them to investigate it. Thanks.

Other observations:
The subwoofer buzzing also happens if you are playing a movie on the laptop - be it in the foreground or back - in WMP. It happens whether you have audio enabled or not, but if it is muted or at a quiet point in the video it is easier to notice. I observed it when playing the "Wildlife" default video and the file itself is located on my SSD.

It also happens randomly if you just have the subwoofer plugged in and the system is idling (at least for me).

It's interference from something I think - maybe from all sorts of different things...

Can anyone else test and see if they are also experiencing this?

Thanks,
Peter

Also, I noticed some kind of visual stutter - this is on AC:

Edit:
Sorry youtube doesn't show it, but it's actually a lot easier to see with this:
www.pjpeter.com/00027.avi

The page I used as an example was Screen tearing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, but I don't know what to call this or what to do about it - sort of like horizontal lines that are not updating as fast as the rest of the screen - are other owners seeing the same thing on their N56s?

I think it's to do with Firefox's Smooth Scrolling - but why can't the N56 keep up with it? My old laptop and other computers do just fine...

Thanks,
Peter

 

I decided to take the hit to my manhood and plug in my sub-woofer to test it for you. It was dead quiet in every case you mentioned above. Used trackpad, using bluetooth mouse, using wired mouse, playing movie, playing music, and starting and stopping programs. I put my ear right up close to it, but couldn't hear anything.

One thing I have noticed, when I'm in China they don't really have grounded plugs. So I've noticed when plugged in that the trackpad gets erratic if my arm isn't grounding the case. This never happened with my other laptops and leads me to believe there may be some type of bleeding of power in the machine when plugged in to a non-ground plug outlet. This seems like if could also result in strange speaker buzzing or popping.

I've not noticed it in the speakers, but the trackpad thing is slightly concerning as I travel to many countries with less than amazing power grids. Maybe there's a way to test your speakers at other locations to see if the power might have something to do with it?

 

Thanks Divo for testing it - I really appreciate it . Could that theory still apply if it happens on battery though? I'm experiencing it the same way whether it is plugged in or not. It is louder if I am on High Performance than Battery Saving. If I turn the screen off it goes away for a second, then returns. When I press ALT+TAB it causes a louder and higher pitched noise.

It actually seems a bit worse now than before. All I've done different is install the older nVidia drivers I had before, I am reinstalling the new ones now to see if it has an effect.

The only thing I have different from stock is the HDD being in the DVD slot. It appears that different types of system activity causes it to make noises - including re-installing the nVidia drivers (on the SSD)...

Reinstalled the nVidia drivers, no change. Dragging windows around the screen is causing some interesting sounds, some higher pitched - it's almost melodic sometimes. This is all on battery and AC both and with the system volume muted...

Thanks a lot,
Peter

 

Boy ya got me on that one. Have you tried running it without the battery in? One thing that occurred to me when I was testing my system is that there may be some type of voltage leak in the charging system with I'm plugged in.

It's a long shot, but you might try running off just the AC to see if that changes anything.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I gave that a try, running on AC without the battery in, and it was the same unfortunately.

The thing that your suggestion reminds me of is the USB+ Charging - I have it enabled even while on battery (the feature itself is one of the reasons I got the laptop). Could it be leakage from that, since it pumps battery power through the circuitry to the front left USB port to increase the charging current? If so, it could make the whole system quite noisy electrically. However, even when I disabled it, I still found the system operating in the same way - giving the same noises as before. And I noticed that when I upgraded to 211 it reset it to be disabled on battery - so it seems that's not a vector (re-enabling it again had no effect).

I also tried plugging the system in with a different AC adapter (I have 6 that share the same tip, 2 90W and 4 120W), but it had no effect.

Not sure what else to try hmmm.

Peter

P.S. When I press FN+F7 to turn off the screen it pops back on within 10 second or so (sometimes almost instantly) - does anyone else have that?

 

this subwoofer buzzing is not very nice, seems that there can be a hardware problem.... I'll try to do more tests, it can be shielding not good on jack or even on subwoofer end

 

Cool - please let me know. I could test it with my GSM phone, with my non-shielded speakers it will make all sorts of noises/interference when the phone is getting a call. If I have time today I will try to take my laptop in to ASUS' national service center to show them the issue and get it tested there - maybe try with a different sub to see if that is the issue or if it's the laptop itself.

My production date is May 2012 - this could be a batch issue - what is your Vaikis, Divot?

Thanks for your help on this guys,
Peter

P.S. I've found the updated i7-3630 model under the id N56VZ-DH71 is now available where I am for $20-$40 less than I paid for this and with the ADW - so I may return this and get the new model and hope it is cleaner. But I will still take this one in to get it looked at for us all and to potentially get them to look at getting a fix - I like the N56VZ - I want it to work out for all of us.

 

Mine is July 2012, please write here what Asus service will find out
I didn't found same jacket as subwoofer has, try to find it in other radio parts shop

 

Nope, not here. I waited about 20 secs.

 

Yes, I'm will definitely remain curious about this. If anyone comes up with an explanation or a fix, please let us all know! It would be great if the wattages on attery remained around 40-50W and I could game without having to plug in every time.