N56vz review and owners lounge - Techno Art

So I called Asus Technical Support and explained the problem and the guy said that he couldn't tell from the serial number whether it should have a backlit keyboard or not but he gave me a reference number and told me to get in touch with retailer since they had advertised it as having a backlit keyboard. I called the retailer and informed them of the issue and he seemed happy enough to sort it out but requested I send an e-mail which I have done, still waiting for a response but I think they're gonna replace it.

 

They sell different versions, backlit and non-backlit.

The backlit version should have light icons on f3 and f4. The non backlit versions shouldn't have the light icons on f3 and f4.
Unless they have messed up something at the factory.

Not sure if this laptop has light sensor? Had an Samsung that had light sensor and keyboard light was only available in a dark room.

 

No light sensor on this as far as I know and I tried it in a pitch black room and still didn't work. I got suspicious when I didn't see the icons on the f3 and f4. Anyway the guy was meant to be getting back to me by 6pm yesterday but he didn't do so, so I'm gonna be on the phone at 9am demanding an explanation.

Really unhappy with this, will let you guys know how it goes.

 

Oh in that case maybe I was wrong ... all of the VM and VZ units I have seen have backlit keyboards, but perhaps there are variant models within both ranges that don't. Perhaps the ones with the low resolution screen & DVD drive instead of Bluray?

Or perhaps it's a regional variation.

 

Nah mine has 1080p display and bluray too so dunno what's going on tbh!

Even the guy from Asus didn't know which exact models had backlit keyboards and which didn't

 

I have some problems when I'm playing games ( like League of Leguends, Skirym) or watching movies when suddenly the nootebook freezes (or fps drops from 70 to 6 for seconds) and sounds like a robot

The same prolem here:


Why it happens?
How can i fix it?

sorry but my English is not the best

 

Weird. Really, really weird.

Think you can download process-explorer, and take a look at the cpu-use? See if there's a thread having very high spikes, that sort of thing.

 

I just read through the entire thread and thought I'd make a few observations/comments.

- The first few pages notebookcheck's temperature review is referenced as being poorly done - later it was suggested it may have been a bad sample. Now however it seems to be the difference between the SSD used by the OP and the stock HDD used by nbcheck - though they even only had the 5400rpm variant and not the 7200 one now available.

- I'd suggest what I do in terms of the clicking sound when not using headphones/external speakers - if you're using the generic Window driers that does not disable the sound card often when on battery I'd think that would affect battery life greatly (along with preventing the subwoofer from working) - better would be to disable System Sounds but a few - I don't need or like clicking noises on navigating a folder, blocking a popup and an exclamation because I clicked backspace an extra time in a text field is not needed in the least - my laptop only makes noise when I want it to really - when viewing a video with audio enabled or listening to an mp3, etc... - this is also useful in making clean recordings when using the stereo mixer - but it means that the speakers will rarely power up and then shut down whether on battery or not and makes the system much less annoying imho.

- I think Matt could really use an IR thermometer - correct me if I'm wrong, but all the tests/results done seemed subjective - and we're all human I think so differences in how we're feeling, ambient temps and what our hands have been exposed to recently can also play a part - especially if using it on the lap which can result in covering up various vents and adding an additional heat source.

- It's a real turn off that the RAM has locked settings in the BIOS that can cause errors/bad performance on upgrading to have larger capacity/lower energy consumption/tighter timings and restrict the laptop to 8GB is a turn off - I may use this to do some work along with gaming at some points and with Eclipse eating up nearly 2GB with the servers and various projects open, Firefox, etc... it would be good to be able to upgrade this at some point. Maybe it would be a good idea to update the first post - the only place it mentions RAM is to say it's easily accessible.

- There have been many QC issues people have been reporting (one guy said he went through 8 different N56's from various sources and had a bunch of different issues with each (?)) and others have been referencing all sorts of different issues (some of which are from different skus while others don't seem to be - I also have a backlight on one of the lights on the back of my G51Jx that doesn't turn on in the back and was told it was a feature of the new model - so I know they do that)

Having to really worry about SSDs from the get go and getting the right caddy/adapters and so on is a turn off - don't get me wrong, I'd like to do that upgrade eventually, but it'd be good to do so as an upgrade on an perfectly usable/enjoyable system to make it even better, not as something to correct inherent issues. I like ASUS and have been using various laptops of theirs for years and recommended them to many friends - but now it's making me think of a Lenovo Y580 which, for heat reasons, also involves a recommended switch to an SSD or the replacement of an otherwise quite usable BluRay drive to install the HDD there instead - and gives the option of an extra mSata drive either way. I'd prefer the matte screen on the N56VZ, variable kb backlight, style etc.. but the Y580 is about the same weight and has longer battery life because of the increased capacity batt and a few other advantages for cheaper depending on the sale of the week...

Maybe I'm reading with darkly tinted glasses, but reading through the thread the complaints stood out to me more than anything else once I got past the first page - it seemed just about every good thing had a caveat to it. I thought reading through the thread would reinforce that the laptop is great and that any issues are minor and that it's all been done before and figured - but now I feel less certain I want to pull the trigger than ever. That's just my feeling though - I don't know if it matters to anyone else but I can't sleep at the moment so I thought I'd share.

Thanks all for contributing to the thread and giving me a picture - it's a nice, fast laptop but it has it's issues too (as all do).

Peter

 

I know how you feel. I ordered my N56VZ today after months of research. I read through even longer threads on the Dell XPS 15 and the HP Envy 15 and read every review on the net multiple times. The conclusion I came to is that all laptops seem to have problems, but to me the ones on the N56 are relatively minor in nature.

I'd rather have cosmetic problems that can be fixed under warranty, and software problems that can be fixed with a clean install than inherent design problems such as nearly useless WiFi, overheating and throttling.

Sure it would be nice if it had mSata, but I plan to put an SSD in and install the HDD into the ODD bay using this:
SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd.- TS06
(this will give me a workable external Bluray drive for the odd occasion when I need one. Anyone think of any reason this wouldn't work?)

Every laptop is a compromise, and to me the N56 has the right balance.

 

The review unit probably had a heat-leak. The hdds the units ship with are different from each other. So that's two different problems.

I added a link to the gentech review so people could see a more or less objective measure of what the surface temps are, after running 3dvantage for a while.

Mm, good point. I guess I didn't want to single it out as a problem, since locking the bios to insane timings is a common thing with laptops. And since the asus timing is at least reasonably fast, instead of being "safe". So a lot of nuance. But yeah, I'll add that to the review, along with the memory models GentechPC tested for us.

..actually, it does work perfectly fine from the beginning. And since both sata channels are set to auto (instead of locked down to "optical drive"/pata/sata 1, etc.), and since there's no hardware-level tweaks for time-out and power-down of the second port -- the n56 is way above average when it comes to ease of upgrade, as well as actually getting the most out of it in the end.

Lots and lots of people who have bought ssds, only to find out that they get the same speeds as before - because the sata port is forced to the speeds the hdd the laptop came with, etc.

So overall, the kit is actually pretty good - compared to other kits. It's just that the bios timing for the ram (forced 1.5v, override for drive-strength and spd-settings), and the not very intelligently set temperature triggers (tends to turn either the fan to 100% or to 0%). And it's so extremely easy for asus to fix the remaining problems.

 

For those still having problems with the sound clicking / crackling, check out this post about the N76. It's virtually the same so should also work for the N56.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/670037-asus-n76vz-5.html#post8804181

It seems to have fixed the problem for at least 2 users.

 

Can an mSSD be put into the N56vz to act as cache?

 

Just a heads up - NVIDIA released a driver update for our videocard:

NVIDIA DRIVERS 306.02BETA

 

^ You convinced me . I didn't know they offered both components together (the external enclosure and the internal adapter) in one package. It's actually available at a store close to my house for $30 - so this is great - I thought I'd have to search around for both parts seperately and worry about shipping from somewhere in China - I think it'd be great not to have the ODD there but still have it close enough at hand to be convinient and portable so I can take it and use it anywhere while it possibly makes the laptop lighter and possibly more energy efficient depending what you put in there.

Question though: I did some research and it seems you should be fine watching BluRay at FHD through the USB 2.0 enclosure. I'm wondering though, this is for certain just a pass through of the connectors on the internal adapter - ie. it could provide full SATA3 performance if we put an SSD in there?

Has anyone tried this enclosure/solution with the N56? I read a lot about such things in regards to the Y580, but not much about this lapto por the SilverStone TS06 in particular.

^ That's where I got my comment about it possibly being the HDD that was causing your heat results and the notebookcheck review's from differing. You're sure it was a heat leak on their model because the difference is too great? Is it possible for you to give the results of temp readings on various parts of the keyboard area of the laptop (or do you know anywhere else to get them besides the notebook check review?). It'd be good to have this data to work from since what data I've seen is stated as unreliable.

What I meant about it working perfectly fine from the beginning was I like to buy a good laptop, use and enjoy it at stock for awhile, and then later on to upgrade it to make it a little faster, cooler, etc... from the other posts it sounded like in order to get it nice and cool as yours is you need an SSD in there from Day 1 - which then needs to be factored into the original purchase price. But bjammin's suggestion looks so elegant I think I would do this upgrade from stock so it works .

It's too bad we have to worry about them possibly making such changes in a future BIOS revision that fix some problems and maybe lock down or break others - arg. I bought a "Built on ASUS" barebones notebook back at the time, part of the Intel Barebone Initiative (Verified by Intel) to make a set of laptops that all use standard components (batteries, lids, etc..) - with that one you could install whichever RAM, CPU, HDD (even GPU in some of the MMX slot models) that fit the spots and you'd be fine. Wish they would leave things open like that was - it's the Apple effect imho - locking things down more and more over time until you end up with a laptop you can't even open anymore at all...

What sort of intermediate steps does the fan have btw? Or is 100% and 0% all it seems to do?

Thanks,
Peter

 

A blu-ray stream would end up at about... 4Mbps. Some.. 512kb/s - 0,5mb/s. Add some 256kbps for sound.. Usb 2.0 would typically give you around 30 to 80mb/s. So.. should work.

Oh, right. Take a look at the GentechPC review. That's the standard setup. IR sensor, etc. I think that some of the optional 7200rpm drives that come with some customisation options run very hot (they're not really laptop drives), and that the different temp readings come from that. A standard drive isn't going to be a problem.

..and I'm pretty sure the notebookreview unit had a heat-leak, and probably a badly fitted heatsink. The temps they have on the processor is way over the limit for anything with any sort of half-working cooling. And they don't match either mine, GentechPCs, or any other test.

Not sure it's Apple that started it. But yeah, there's this tendency to lock down the bios-settings in order to get more predictable support problems, ensure things don't run hot, that someone can't "brick" their system by messing with the settings, etc. That's one of the excuses asus gave me about the ram-timing - that they wanted to make sure no one overclocked the system. ..while what I wanted to do was to just get the ram-chips I used to work, while running at lower voltage and tighter timing..

..So when you have someone who don't know what they're doing when tweaking the bios, then .. well.. it's going to cause Asus support more work. But they don't seem to mind..

I'm not sure, but it seems to be using the standard bios settings for the ami bioses. So it's going to run at 10% while idling (which is fine), and then switch to 70% or something because the next trip-points are so close. And then hit 100% over 75 degrees. Which it will hit pretty much instantly on load, because the processor is going to hit 80 before the heatsink works optimally. They've just not done a very good job of balancing it to the system. The fan is pretty silent, though, so I doubt they're going to get any complaints..

 

I won't have my N56 for at least a week, so will be interested to see how you go with this.

I was worried about the unusually large angled front panel on the N56 Bluray, but from what I can see the drive itself is in the centre of that so it should be a standard faceplate connection and should fit onto the caddy OK. But that's just theory.

 

Aww lol - I was hoping you'd tell me first . Will see though, I haven't bought an N56 yet or decided on a place to get it - but definitely thinking.

First thing I might pick up though is this:

Buy the OCZ Agility 3 Series 2.5 SATA III SSD at TigerDirect.ca


Is there any reason this wouldn't work in the N56's actual slot or ODD with the TS06 adapter?

Also still wondering if anyone can answer this question:
"I'm wondering though, this is for certain just a pass through of the connectors on the internal adapter - ie. it could provide full SATA3 performance if we put an SSD in there?"


It'd be great if you can reply today since the TigerDirect deal ends in 3 hours and it'd put me a step closer to getting the system .

Thanks,
Peter

 

did anyone measure their gt 650m idle clock? i'm getting pretty high ones, 1670 mhz for shader, 835 for geometry and 900 for memory clock. if i run something explicitly using nvidia, the clocks may go down and up, depending on load, eventually settling at lowest when there's no gpu load, but as soon as i close that program, the sensors stick to high again... i've checked with gpu-z 0.6.4 and hwinfo64 4.02. the driver is oem version 296.67

 

No.

Since they advertise with sata 3 speeds, it has to be a pass-through connector.

The only possibility of failure here is that Asus has traveled back in time to 2010, bought up sata 2 connectors on a sale, buried huge stack of boxes with the cables. And unearthed it just for the release of the n56vz, so they could use sata 2 instead of sata 3 cables for the optical drive connector. Because saving three cents (before counting the lowered prices over time) seemed like a really good idea right after completing the time-machine experiment.. or something.

And then you would end up with sata 2 speeds instead of sata 3 speeds. It would still work. And you should put your ssd as the boot-drive on the primary port anyway, and switch the other hdd to the backup slot. In which case sata 2 will be more than enough to cover max speeds on that drive/hdd..

 

Thanks for your reply, it's good to hear it should work - I had heard that the firmware on the drives may not work with some computers (even that they would work with last year's model and not on new ones in one instance) - this is my first foray into SSDs so that's why I'm asking.

Thanks, I would put the SSD in the main slot, but I'm looking to the future when I might put SSDs in both potentially - wondering on the futureproofing of it.

Question though, where do they advertise Sata 3 speeds? I saw that no where - that's why I asked

Thanks,
Peter

 

Oh, um, 22 pin sata. Haven't tried it myself, so it might be some sort of problem here that limits it to sata 3Gb/s. But there's no reason to have the full connector otherwise.

 

I hear you, I figured if the TS06 were capable of full SATA III they would advertise it somewhere and not seeing it mentioned is what made me wonder if I was missing something. Maybe if I do get the adapter and laptop I can try it out in the ODD slot for a bit and do some benches and see.

Thanks a lot for the replies - really thinking of picking up the 120GB version of that Agility 3 from OCZ for $69.99 after rebate tonight and then build the system around it - thanks

 

Looks like Asus just announced a more portable version of the N56's internals...

ASUS 15-inch Zenbook U500: Ivy Bridge, optional NVIDIA graphics and a full numpad (update: hands-on) -- Engadget

Not too keen on cooling but I certainly do like the IPS screen!

 

Very interesting - dual SSD/HDD slots to start with. For 10 seconds I thought - "No Blu-Ray drive too bad" - then I remembered I was going to yank that anyway so that would work great - if the cooling is good and the rest of it holds together well - but you're right - how can the cooling be this good when it's that much thinner - and it'll certainly cost a pretty penny more for sure... IPS though...

Thanks for the heads up!

 

Hi all. I joined this forum to get info on the n56/76, and i have read a lot. So thanks for all the inputs!

I found something relevant about this today, and wanted to post it here, but first a little bla. bla. (i´ll make it quick). My old desktop died after 7 years! I want to replace it with my first laptop, so while looking for a new one I got a "loaner" cheapo laptop. This also has an elan touch pad, and some functions which speeds up surfing for me namely two/three finger tapping. I assigned these to go one page back/forward in my browser, and i´m now addicted to these functions.

Yeaterday I finally went to check out the n76vz and the n56vz at the local store for an hour or so, and tried to use the trackpad alot, to get a good impression. They had all the typical faults: made "clack clack" sounds when tapped, wasn´t seated flush, and wasn´t clickable in the far corners, but worked just fine for me, if I was SUPER gentle with it, and applied next to no pressure. I was dissapointed to find that my favorite options: two/three finger tapping had gone. I haven´t gotten the n76vz yet, but planning to as everything else looked good to me, but first i wanted to see if there was any workaround on the elan touch pad, which feels nice (if it´s a well assembled one!)

I have seached litteraly for hours, and finally found this little thing:
Asus x53e – ASUS elan – Elantech Touchpad – Edge Scroll or other option Missing WINDOWS « Little PC Tricks Learned, Along Lifes Bumpy Road.

Maybe that would work on the n-series as well? I´m no computer enthusiast, but do A LOT of research before i buy anything expensive. I want my things to work properly, and last for a long long time. I will definetely have a go at this, when i get mine.

 

This looks so appealing I might actually wait until it's available. I'm also skeptical about the cooling but I think I would even sacrifice NVIDIA graphics, I don't game that much on a PC anyway...

 

OK so an update about my situation regarding the lack of a backlit keyboard on the N56VM I bought...

So after many phone calls asking the company what was going to be done about the issue they finally set up for the laptop to be collected by UPS yesterday; it arrived back at the company today so I called them to see what they were gonna do.

The guys didn't seem to have a clue so I explained that contrary to what they were saying (they were claiming it was a faulty backlit keyboard) the laptop did not have a backlit keyboard and I told the guy that I didn't want another laptop sent out unless they were 110% it had a backlit KB. The guy said he would call me back which he just did and he said that they had checked with Asus and unfortunately none of the N56VM's they sell have the backlit KB, he apologised and offered me a full refund which I accepted. So now I'm back to trying to find a similarly specced lappy for a similar price (max budget of £850) any recommendations?

 

Thanks for the review, very informative!

Right now i'm stuck between getting the n56vz, the lenovo ideapad y580, and the sony vaio s15
I'm just wondering how the 640M LE 2gb graphics card compares to the gpu on the asus.
The ideapad y580's gpu is obviously superior but i've heard reports of not very good build quality ("cheap" feel, lots of cheap plastic)

So considering i will be taking it to college every day (not sure if 6lbs is too heavy), playing games regularly (Guild Wars 2, League of Legends, maybe BF3..but i'm fine with playing Bf3 on low or medium) what would be the best choice for me? Price is irrelevant because they are all around the same.

Also, i live in canada, would you happen to know the best place to buy an n56vz (i don't think asus sells from their site).
And how would i go about putting an ssd into any of the systems..would i put it in the optical bay or something...or take out the hdd and use it externally and put an ssd in the main drive..

Thanks

 

I posted this in the wrong thread, so here it is again ... slightly updated:

---------------------------

Got my N56VZ today. First thing I tried was to create backup disks so I could reimage, but it won't get through that process without freezing.

When it freezes the background goes all funny with little blue squiggly lines (see image)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31697322/frozenN56.JPG

Eventually if I leave it on that long enough, it reboots.

First I blamed the RAM - I ordered it from the retailed with 16GB which they added themselves. They added DDR3-1330 instead of DDR3-1600
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31697322/CPU-1.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31697322/CPU-2.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31697322/CPU-3.png

But I ran memtest86+ and it passed OK. I'll probably still ask to get it changed though, as it's not what I paid for.

Any ideas on whether it's worth bothering getting the RAM swapped from a performance perspective, and whether it's likely a cause? If not, what might be?


Edit: It is fine with either stick of memory in, but not with both. It will crash very quickly with both in.

 

Has ANYONE here installed Windows 8 on this laptop? Do all of the keyboard functions work? Any issues? I have the final release of Windows 8 from my school and want to install it but I thought I'd ask here before I did. Anyone? Note: I don't mean installed in a virtual machine. I mean having it installed on the actual laptop. Thanks!

 

Honestly a bit amazed by how many people thought the review was helpful, since it is so random But thanks.

y580/gddr5 ram vs ddr3, etc. It could be possible that gddr5 ram might reach better internal transfer speeds on a different chip/card-config. But the difference in stock clock results between a 660m and a 650m/640m don't come from the memory config. Instead it's the difference in stock clock-speeds (and the locked vbios on the 640le card - you have to flash it to change the upper limits).

..Also turns out that ddr3 cards are easier to overclock on the low spreads at least, so there's no reason you shouldn't get a very good overclock on either of the 640/650/660 kepler cards.

So what matters most really is the cooling system. Both for overclocks and normal running over time..

And until the n56 I didn't know of any laptop config that could run comfortably well within the safe limits on full load, never mind with an overclock, for several hours.

Too bad about the braindead bios-tweaking from asus, though.. They're extremely close to having a massive winner on their hands. But their locked bios and incompetent bios-tweakers are preventing that.

 

After much reading and consideration (thanks nipsen ), I went and got the n76vz yeasterday. I thought I would post here as there is no n76 owners lounge.

I am a sound engeneer, and have used a lot of compuers and laptops through my work, but I have never owned a laptop before, only desktops. Before I buy any new stuff personally, I always do a LOT of research, so I know that I will get:
a) Good value for money
b) A quality product that will last for many years.
c) A product that superceeds my needs, which gives a nice feel of luxury, and makes it a bit more future proof.

- my last pc went through 7 years of daily use, before it died of MB failure :thumbsup:


As the demo in the shop had a semi sticking fn key and a loose touchpad, the first thing I did when I left the store, was to open the box in my car, to see if any obvious faults were there, and there was: the touchpad was loose, and the fn key was sticking a bit, so I went back in the store, to get another. Second one: slightly sticking fn key, and a loose touchpad I decided to take it home for the weekend to check it out anyway...

Faults and not so great stuff found so far:
1) Semi sticking fn key: slow to let go, and makes a "loud" clicking noise.
2) usb ports grab too hard, and make deep scratches in the surface of the connecter.
3) The left speaker clicking, as the amp turns on and off. The fix here worked perfect for me, even if I avoid the last step.
4) The grain of the monitor is bad, but only on very high or max backlight.
5) the chassis top is bend unevenly. Pretty difficult to take pictures of this, but the left side sits deaper. Probably doesn´t matter, but says a bit about the build quality.






6) Touch pad is only partly attached at the front. It wouldn´t matter, if it hadn´t made the "clack clack" sounds it makes when lightly tapped. If I put my finger in the middle, and press down slightly, the touch pad is perfect, and makes no noise. I´m really resisting an urge to take it apart and find a fix for this problem. (It sounds worse in real life than on the video.)



7) related to 5) the keyboard sits higher in the middle, and curves down towards the edges - most at the top row of keys (f-keys), down to flat at the spacebar row of keys. Maybe this is design feature? (couldn´t take a pic that made sence)

8) one core runs up to 12 degrees celcius cooler than the others, but mostly 6-8 degrees. Maybe the temp reading aren´t precise, but 12 degrees seems a bit much. Some say, it the heat sink, but who knows?



9) the speakers, and especially the subwoofer oversteer/distort a bit when you play a cd at 100% volume in vlc player. I tried to make a video, by using the waves maxxaudio program and isolate the subwoofer. My old camera couldn´t record the sound properly, so I didn´t include it here. The maxxaudio program introduces some random surround effect that can´t be turned off (when you play a cd at least), and gains audio even more, so don´t use that crap - even though the interface looks pretty and cool. It´s really not a problem, as long as you don´t use too much volume in mediaplayers, so the input isn´t so high, but turn the output volume of the speakers up instead.

10) the computer isn´t that fast, or is it just me? Startup takes forever, and is ofcourse also due to all the bloatware that starts up, but it still it got it´s back kicked by a plastic acer v3-571 with a i3 2350 and 4gb ram, which still has all the acer bloatware - and there is plenty. I had the cheapo acer for a week, before returning it, due to a poor screen, and a bad touchpad, but I must admit, that I can´t tell the difference in processor speed.

11) the backlit keyboard has a lot of bleeding.

Am I expecting to much from a laptop, or a new computer these days? It seems that quality control has gone out the window, now that everything is being made in China. The guy at the store told me they returned a full faulty pallet of n56´s to asus . It makes me sad to know that they are just crushed, and not repaired.

 

What Nvidia drivers are you using? Mine's keep crashing.

 

^either the reference driver from asus or the latest beta-drivers should work perfectly fine. But make sure you update the intel hd4000 driver as well. There are some full-screen/directx context switching fixes on the latest version.

It's perfectly painless to update either driver separately, by the way.

lol wow. That's terrible. Like we wondered about a while back, it seems to be the assembly that's done too fast/that the parts require a bit more care to be fitted perfectly. Same with the heat-pipes/shielding. It's really tight, and if you slip something in sideways, it's going to end in a heat-leak. Which will be a game-breaker on this laptop.. Could be this is why Asus is a bit wary of rolling it out quickly right now..

The processor thing - you're probably still running on the first bios-version that disabled turbo-boost. And since most individually run applications won't actually scale over several cores, you would really running the "speed" of one core at 2.1Ghz.

So get the bios-update, and so on, and you're going to see better results.

 

Windows 8 RTM works 100% fine with this laptop. All of the fn keys, intel drivers, nvidia drivers, etc... all works perfectly.

 

I haven't gotten an N56VZ yet (still waiting on seeing how the U500 works out) - but I noticed that in the past 2 weeks it's been picked up by more major retailers here so it's nice to see if I do go with it, it should be easier to get and to potentially price match etc...

What I have done though is pick up the TS06 ($30) you recommended bjammin and installed it on my G51Jx last night - and it works brilliantly. I only have Sata II on this laptop but I got a Vertex 4 128GB SSD anyway ($90). My Windows boot time went down from 1 minute 20 on a Clean Install on the HDD to 40 seconds on the SSD and the system feels much more snappy and responsive.

Thank you both for your suggestions about the value of the SSD and ODD switch - having the ODD in the external enclosure works great. The only sticking point was getting the silly plastic faceplate of - that took me a good 20 minutes with a flathead screwdriver until I realized you should twist it slightly outwards once you have the two middle tabs popped (the outer ones just won't seem to release otherwise. The N56's ODD faceplate may be easier, but if I'd know that little bit of advice at the start getting it off would have been a... snap.

All the best and the N56 - I'll keep watching this thread and the updates that come (esp these QC issues and fixes) - I may be joining you sooner or later

Thanks,
Peter

 

Hello,

Just bought my N56VZ-DS71 from Best Buy this past Thursday and I'm mostly happy with it. It came with the 204 BIOS so I assume it is a newer batch. However, I have the "popping" speaker problem that I have read about here and on other sites. I fixed it using the instructions posted by another user in the N75 section. However, I question whether the popping is a symptom of an underlying hardware problem, or is it a software problem? If it is a hardware problem then the fix is probably just a band aid solution.

Another thing I have noticed is that when playing Youtube videos it occassionally stutters and makes buzzing noises. It is as if it gets stuck in place playing the videos. Anyone else encounter this? EDIT: just found what I think is the culprit. Apparently it is related to mcafee host file causing a giant cpu spike. Other people have been reporting the same thing. I have yet to uninstall mcafee.

Also, I have noticed that the area on the right side of the touch pad gets warm during routine use. Is this something out of the ordinary?

Many thanks!

 

I got this laptop from Best Buy about a week and a half ago...however, I'm having touchpad issues.

The left 'click' or the touchpad on the left side, is a lot more 'down' (for lack of a better word) than the right side. I don't know if this is normal.

There's a little scratch on the top of the laptop (no idea how it got there), so I'm not sure if I'd be able to return it...should I?

 

Also, the left side of the touchpad...on the very far left, it doesn't allow me to click AT ALL, while the far right does. I don't know if this is normal?

 

Yes it´s terrible, and I don´t get it at all. Either these things cost next to nothing to produce, or they just foooked the first big batch up, and thought they would get away with it. And you are right about the assembly, and it also makes me wonder what else is thrown together on the inside, especially with one core running so much cooler.

It makes a lot of sense what you say about the "speed", so thanks for clearing that up! Why on earth would asus disable turbo-boost?!? Temperatures i´m guessing, but it totally takes the point out of the i7. I´ll see if can muster the courage to flash the bios

What do you mean by "Could be this is why Asus is a bit wary of rolling it out quickly right now.." I never heard that phrase before (i´m danish)

Sadly that´s completely normal (check my post on this page). You basically have to decide if you can live with these small defects. I´m still undecided.

 

The Bios update worked fine for me (used a USB drive inside the Bios itself]. On HWInfo64 the clocks of the Core i7 appear to be going at max speed (didn't see that before).

I changed the HDD to a Crucial 512GB SSD with a clean Windows 7 install (from Microsoft, not the Asus version) and just added the drivers from Asus. The SSD appears to be tight at first, but fits well. So far, no problems and SATA 3 performance (Crystaldiskmark)

Sequential Read : 504.123 MB/s
Sequential Write : 292.735 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 427.670 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 293.880 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.767 MB/s [ 5070.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 55.548 MB/s [ 13561.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 203.676 MB/s [ 49725.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 252.730 MB/s [ 61701.7 IOPS]

The Atheros WIFI card was a major letdown on this laptop as I'm currently a heave WIDI user. I'll try to upgrade the card to a Centrino Advanced and share my results here.

 

Mine came with an Intel Centrino 2230. Not sure why some come with the Atheros.

 

Yeah everything worked for me, except for the Power4Gear. The profiles installed but the FN-Space widget doesn't. No big deal really.

Everything else worked OK, and more of the devices (eg. Wifi and Ethernet) were recognised out of the box than with a clean Windows 7 install.

 

Mm.. the cores are on the same die, and it's normal to get differences like that on idle or small loads. The first core will be running a task, the others will be idle, etc.

Good question. "Settings were recommended and approved by Intel, because they came with the standard bios" probably has something to do with it..

Vi foerstååer ikke hinannen! My first language is Norwegian, and I tend to just write the first thing and sentence construction that pops into my head, so no worries if what I write is impossible to read sometimes.

But it seems like Asus has been selecting some smaller markets to try the model out on first.

 

Has anybody tried playing Battlefield 3 on this laptop? How does it hold up?

 

Whattayaknow... I learn something here every day - Thanks again man! You are super helpful.
To me it seems a bit strange that one would be sticking out so much, as it doesn´t seem to have anything to do with loads, when i monitor the cores, but just seems like one is cooler on idle. It almost evens out at loads. But it´s very reassuring to know that it´s normal.

Oh I see. I thought it was asus´ decision.

Hej nabo - trevligt att träffa dig
Thanks for clearing that up. I didn´t know that, but what I do know, is that the many stores and webshops in Denmark are selling their demos now , so it seems it hasn´t been a super succes. I must admit that day two of my ownership has been better, but I´m still undecided...

 

As I haven´t made a clean install yet, that could be the problem, but have anyone one had problems with nvidia optimus?

I use VLC player to watch movies, and on my desktops I used the nvidia control panel to adjust video color settings, brightness and so on. When I move the sliders arround in the control panel on the n76vz, nothing happens. No problem i thought... I´ll just force VLC to use the 650m, but no such luck.

Things I tried:
- Set the power4gear to maximum performance.
- Choose the 650m GPU as the preferred graphics card in global settings in the 3D menu.
- Tried to ad vlc.exe to programs that should run on the 650m, but the drop down menu to choose the 650m is greyed out.
- Activated the "run with graphics card" option, when right clicking the .exe or the shortcut (under desktop drop menu in the control panel)
- Right clicked vlc.exe and chose run with nvidia graphics, but still the 650m remains asleep, and lets the hd4000 run.

What to do? I searched the net high and low, but never found the solution. Lenovo owners, have an on off switch for the dGPU apparently, lucky bast..ds

 

^..can you choose which video-overlay to use in the windows-version of vlc? I think vlc does it's own override, so that might be it.. If so, choose some "intel video overlay", instead of "direct rendering", or something similar.

No, asus set it themselves. ..But going by what their reps say, I think they treat standard "failsafe" settings from intel as "recommendations from intel"..

That's Swedish But.. I'm not sure, I think they've actually sold relatively well. Tests and reviews have been good, the units shops have had in stock have been sold quickly, that sort of thing. Question is if they've sold small stocks, had high returns, and not really earned that much on it. So asus might not want to bet on that config from a business point of view.

Complete guesswork, obviously, but I've seen that happen to good products before - if there's a combination of negative feedback, build faults, returns, and better profit potential on different models. Then having a really, really, really good product doesn't matter.

Doubt they're not going to build on the cooling/heatshield solution, though. So no worries for us as customers. But it wouldn't surprise me if they drop this model in the end for some sort of business-reason or other.

 

Actually I tell a lie .. the hotkeys aren't working consistently .. the keyboard backlight up/down is OK, but trackpad off doesn't work at all, and the screen brightness controls are very slow to respond, if at all.

Anyone else got better results than this on Windows 8 ?

 

Wow - I don´t even know what that means! Sorry... but thanks for the suggestion - I will look into it. It´s not just vlc. I tried to use windows media player, and again the drop menu in the control panel for choosing gpu is grayed out.

Aha, I see what you mean. Still a weird decision

I know lol. It´s was just a bad joke...

I think you¨re right. In Denmark, I followed the prices for a while, before getting one, and I could see the numbers in stock were dropping VERY slowly. That combined with the story I got from the sales rep at the store, about the full pallet being returned, gives an impression of fiasco.

Naturally money must be made in a business, but I really hope that Asus will change their strategy, if they have so many returns. I´m tired of products being made badly, and have a short lifespan. Companies like short lifespans, so they can sell more, but especially electronic companies shouldn`t have to worry about this so much, because the products would be outdated very soon, and therefore be replaced by most consumers anyways. It would just leave a small group like me to take care of the environment a bit more, because we would keep products longer. My last desktop didn´t even understand a youtube video in HD

Hopefully they don´t drop the n-series, but just improve the production/assembly/quality control a bit. Then it would be a yummy laptop!