N56vz review and owners lounge - Techno Art

You'll be happy to know it also works brilliantly in the N56. Getting the faceplate off is a bit fiddly, but not too hard. I wouldn't want to do it too often though as those lugs would eventually break!

 

Yeah.. it's a part of the wmp that never was developed. I.. think the hardware support part is there in a rescued reboot of the wmp classic player.. or at least it was last year..

The thing is the optimus setup.. I wonder if maybe the reference driver is set up differently, or if maybe there's an asus control for the overlay involved here. So you would be using the asus controls, that then would affect the video overlay, etc.

..So maybe the easiest solution is just to use the intel driver overlay controls instead. I was having some trouble with a hardware renderer in zoom player earlier, for example. And I'm pretty sure it's because the way optimus will have a reserved area that isn't explicitly declared by the video-driver. So I had video-acceleration with the nvidia gpu (and 0% load on the cpu), but was still not able to control the video-overlay with the controls in the nvidia panel.. Since it's not actually outputting on the nvidia card, but the intel graphics, I guess..

Not really a problem if you are just going to control brightness and contrast, and so on. But still..

Mm.

haha. The ones with a working laptop will have a limited edition Maybe it'll become some sort of collector's item.

 

Got some proplems with the optimus technology. Since I updated the HD4000 driver, games don't start with the GT650 anymore. I already tried to force to use the GeForce in the nvidia control panel and set the power management to high performance (over P4G) but that doesn't seem to help.

Any idea?

 

Little update: Just tried to install the new beta driver from the nvidia website and now it it only uses the GT650 and not the HD4000 anymore. Seems like the optimus technology is broken. I try to go back with the standard Asus drivers now.

Edit: Yes, now it works again. Seems like not a good idea to install new drivers that aren't available on the Asus site.

I guess then I have to wait for Asus to release them in a modified way for the N56.

 

How do you see if it uses the HD4000? I updated to the latest beta drivers and the GPU activity monitor says that there is no activity on the 650m.

By the way, I am sometimes unable to access the Nvidia control panel. It gives the following error:
You are not currently using a monitor attached to an nvidia gpu
Which is stupid because the notebook has only one monitor......The only solution is to uninstall the driver and re-install the driver. It happens with all drivers (latest beta and the official Asus release).

 

Download a hardware monitor application of some sort. Hwinfo64, for example. Or Msi Afterburner. Has a nice graph, and so on. So you can see how it works, when the nvidia card runs above idle frequency, etc.

This is all software-based, by the way. You essentially run a wrapper program (a small piece of software) ahead of the program you want accelerated with the nvidia gpu. And that's controlled by the driver profiles.

When you update the driver later on, you can easily use just the nvidia panel, and get profiles (profiles for specific games/programs) downloaded automatically. Along with notifications for updates (beta and/or legacy). You always have both intel and nvidia drivers on the system, whether you are running "asus reference" or not.

Corrupt driver database.

Make sure you have the two latest hd4000 driver and the nvidia driver. Use the official asus drivers if you can't find the beta-drivers. Have them ready somewhere.

..then go to the "uninstall programs" menus, uninstall the nvidia drivers and the intel drivers. If you uninstall the nvidia driver first, it won't force you to reboot right away.

Then reboot, hold f8, get windows to boot in safe-mode, or whatever it's called in win7. Then install the intel driver, reboot, etc. and then the nvidia driver.

If you install the drivers from the asus page, make sure you install both the drivers (the intel and nvidia drivers). If you use the driver-disc, you can pick the two different drivers off the list of things that presumably won't be installed at that point.

 

Anyone installed Windows8? (MetroUI is for tablets etc blah blah)

 

Anyone else have loose seams between the plastic LCD frame and the lid? Mine makes creaking noises and is noticeably loose in places. I also had to tighten one of the screws beneath the frame on the top left hand corner because it wasn't seated properly and was pushing out the frame by about 5 mm. There are also large gaps on the bottom corners. Anyone else have these issues? Or was mine just built on a Friday afternoon...

 

Yes I have installed Windows 8, and it works fine so far. In fact with my Samsung 830 SSD this is far and away the fastest machine I have ever used.

It found most of my hardware automatically (Wifi, ethernet etc) so I just installed the nVidia beta drivers and a few other items from the Asus website. I did not install drivers for anything that Windows 8 included, as I assume the Windows 8 versions are newer / better.

Most of the needed drivers are easily identified in Device Manager. If you are struggling to identify the "PCI Simple Communications Controller", it is the "Intel Management Engine Interface" from the "Others" section.

Power4Gear wouldn't install, probably because it tries to install a sidebar widget, and these don't exist on Windows 8. I'm hoping for an update to this at some stage, but it's no great loss.

Most of the hotkeys also work fine after installing "ATKACPI driver and hotkey-related utilities", however the screen brightness ones are inconsistent, probably due to the lack of Power4Gear. Keyboard backlight, volume control etc seem fine.

As far as Windows 8 itself goes, I'm quite liking it but spending all my time in desktop mode and just using the Metro bit as a glorified launcher.

 

Thanks Bjammin. I have exactly the same SSD - just haven't been home yet to play with my new NV56. Its good news everything (more or less works though).

 

Hey guys. Just want to let you know that I'm using the new Nvidia Beta 306 driver and noticing a noticeably better performance in Guild wars 2. Doesn't look like there is any issue with Optimus either. Using Afterburner my core clock is at 135mhz when not in use. Also I noticed that the first ATK driver is much better than the newer one. I was having issues with the backlit keyboard turning on with the hotkey with the newer driver so I went back to the first driver and no issues.

The only two issues that kinda annoy me is the keyboard buzzing at certain frequencies and the optical drive randomly moving which make noise (most notably when using iTunes). Still love the laptop though.

 

Hey everyone; its been a while since I was Notebookreview.com as I been on the sister site TabletPCreview.com. So first and foremost I wanted to say hello to all my friends since 2007.

Just purchased my N56VZ and its doings its first boot up as we speak. Taking its sweet time to install bloatware. One of the things I do miss about Asus computers in the past was all the freebies you would get.

 

Hi everyone! I have been reading this thread for some time now. I have the N56VZ for a couple of weeks now. The notebook is great overall. It has some minor flaws (i.e aluminum cover in the keyboard zone - space bar is not leveled. Touchpad is ok, no flaws there, speakers don't make strange sounds.Temps are ok too.
The biggest issue i had so far is Windows 7 giving me a cold shoulder and screwing with my HDD (stock 750GB-7200RPM HDD). I don't really know why, and could not manage to see any real reason for it to do so.
Fixed it with a clean install because that was the only thing that could help then after a couple of days I did another clean install using Windows 8 RTM.

N56+Windows 8- good combination. Only problems here is that it doesn't see my touchpad drivers every time.Compatibility settings do not fix the issue.

@bjammin - Power4Gear installed fine. For the sidebargadget try this : google "windows 8 gadgets two tools" and go to the first page in the results
option one worked for me. after you get your sidebar and gadgets back re-run the P4G setup while having the gadget screen opened. Run the setup in compatibility mode for Win 7. You will see the gadget window close.Open it again quickly and select the P4G widget. It will load and it will stay installed. Same for Instant ON if you use it.

@oninismo - Nvidia Beta 306 driver -Aug 27 I believe has a few issues. I use 2D and 3D software: Photoshop can't use the Nvidia GPU, or better said, it uses it but does not display the workspace no matter what you try, a 3D program called Keyshot has issues selecting the GPU.

 

Wow that seemed to work, but didn't solve the hotkey issue. If I change the screen brightness up to full, the hotkeys stop responding altogether for a while ... then eventually they start working again, and screen brightness can go up & down fine as long as it doesn't go to full!

Also fn-space kind works to switch profiles, but it's also very slow to respond.

Are you getting this behaviour too? It's not major but a bit niggling.

I was having problems with the Intel graphics driver crashing and recovering, and I found a newer version than the one Windows installed on the Intel site here. So far so good, although I only just installed it.

 

Glad it worked. Same behaviour. I'll try to see what's up with the screen brightness issue now. What windows are you running?

 

Windows 8 Pro (RTM).

Thanks for the tips. Glad it's not just me.

All in all for anyone else reading though, my Windows 8 experience is great though

 

Hey guys,

I'm considering buying a Asus N56vz, but I have heard there is a difference in size between the i5 and i7 power supply. Can anyone give me the exact measurements of the power supply size.

Thanks..

 

@MilanT - i5 has a 90W power adapter / i7 has a 120 power adapter. The actual size of the power bricks is different , but I don't really think it matters. My power brick - 120W is 0.6kg.I guess the 90W one could be about 0.5kg

Notebook size 38.0 x 25.5 x 2.72 ~3.24 cm (WxDxH) (i3/i5 processor SKU)
38.0 x 25.5 x 2.73 ~3.40 cm (WxDxH) (i7 processor SKU)

@ bjammin - thanks for the driver.Same here for anyone interested. Good windows 8 experience.
Regarding the screen brightness.I tried to see if I could disable the windows fn hotkeys in Group policies to let the ATK- keys take over, but windows 8 doesn't allow disabling fn keys anymore for some reason, or I just can't find them. The issue might be driver related-not taking over properly to override the default windows shortcuts.

 

Thanks CVlad, but can I can you tell me the dimensions of the power supply and not the laptop?

 

Your welcome! The 120W power brick is ~ 15.2 x 6.4 x 3.7 cm and 0.6 kg

 

Update for N56 owners using Windows 8. A new model of the ASUS N56 will hit the market with WIN 8 installed so the support site should start to upload drivers for that model.

Link to support site : ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download N56VJ

Link to source : Asus N56VJ-S4006H CI5 8GB 1TB 15.6IN W8HP 90NB0031-M00060 - Max ICT - Asus N56VJ-S4006H CI5 8GB 1TB 15.6IN W8HP

 

I have the same issue. How to remove plastic LCD frame? I need to tight one of the screws too.

 

And my left Ctrl key did "loud" clicking noise when pressed, I read its common problem, advice: remove the key, under it was loosen piece of black plastic around. With something sharp move it to the right/another position, put key back and thats all.

Picture of ctrl key with removed key:

 

So, guys I'm about to buy a N76VZ-DS71, which I believe is pretty similar to the N56. Besides the sound problem, which seems to be solved, any other concerns? Any tips or advices?

Anything better on the price range?

Regards!

 

Is anyone running Ubuntu (or Linux) on their N56(VZ)? I'm thinking about dual-booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Windows 7 is installed on the main SSD (256GB Samsung 830) and I'm currently thinking about placing an additional 128GB SSD in a ODD caddy. On that 128GB SSD I want to install Ubuntu so that I can keep Windows 7 and Ubuntu separated. Will this work? Will Linux run at the N56VZ?

 

Heya! How's everyone doing?

I picked up a temperature app for the laptop (N56VZ-RB71) to check what the temperatures were when I was running Half Life 2 on full settings. Full everything. The game is from 2004 but I figured I'd check out what happens if I'm stressing the system somewhat.

Wellll... I'm getting temp highs in the 94 degree range for the CPU and 80 degree range for the cpu. Resting my hands near the keyboard and I definitely feel some warmth. Is this all within reason? I'm shocked that an 8 year old game is doing this!

 

Nothing stopping you from having one partition with linux, and running a dual-boot. Most live-distros will have a partition editor included that you can resize partitions with, etc.

There are three problems with linux on the n56 at the moment. The kepler/nvidia drivers are out, but the kmod support doesn't like the new hardware. So you need to compile your source yourself if you want the nvidia-drivers to work. And then optimus isn't going to work very easily. So you're stuck with internal graphics - which.. really isn't much of a problem for the most part, but still..

Then it's the wifi-card. For some reason the earliest kernels have introduced a driver with a new bug of some sort that happens completely randomly and causes a kernel panic sometimes.

And the backlit keyboard doesn't work - none of the fn-keys, etc. Since Asus has been so nice as to use a wmi-based model for controlling the keys. And don't think it's much of a point to document what those interfaces are, in case someone were interested in writing a new driver, etc. So no backlit keyboard, no light controls via fn-keys, switching outputs, turning off and on antennas, etc.

Other than that - works.

 

Hahha. You scared me for a second. I missed the part where you said 'for linux' and thought that the new drivers just messed everything up!

My heart almost jumped!

 

Currently seeing 98 degrees Celsius for the CPU temp. I'm freaking out a little. This seems absurdly high!

Is there supposed to be a higher fan setting? I can barely hear mine right now. I'd expect it to be moving some air like woah right about now.

I also noticed that the perforations around the power button aren't really perforations... There's one circular one on each side for the speakers, but other than that, there are no holes.

Thanks for all your help.

 

CPU temperature: I have about 50 - 52 Celsius during web surfing, programming etc. When I play games, I have about 70 Celsius in older games (Far Cry 2, Battlefield 2...) and 83 - 85 Celsius in newest games.

 

I'm so confused then.

Why am I seeing 98 degrees? This is on half life 2.

That's not good! Oh dangit. What could be wrong?

 

Right. Should peak around 85 degrees on the cpu. Gpu shouldn't go above 70 on standard clocks. If it hits 95 degrees, something is wrong (edit: with the heatsink/cooling goop/assembly).

..thanks to amazing bios tweaking by Asus, you can still run your system without throttling until 105 degrees, though.

I wonder if you write them and ask, if they're going to insist everything is working as long as the cpu doesn't catch on fire.

 

Well, right now for instance...

It's been about 30 mins since I stopped playing HL2. I have a bunch of tabs open in firefox (maybe 20), skype app open (no chatting), Open office, and the temp app.

Currently idling at about 60 degrees. Not good. Ugh...

 

We've seen the variation in build quality on the outside (screen bezel, trackpad etc). I would assume a similar variation to the internal build quality (CPU seating, paste consistency, heatsink alignment) could be causing this.

As nipsen said though, it's difficult to prove what is the "correct" operating temperature but if you're going to game a lot it's probably worth chasing a fix.

 

What are your ambient temps? You might be able to limit the frames with vsync or something else as has been suggested - beyond 60 or so you won't notice a difference.

 

Another update for Asus N56/N76 users. The VJ version of this notebooks will have a configuration similar to this:

ASUS N76VJ-T4016H
17.3inch FHD Matt
Intel i7-3630QM
NV GT 635M 2G
DDR3 VRAM 8192MB DDRIII 1600
750GB 5400rpm
6 cell
W8-64-bit (N76VJ-T4016H)

So,no upgraded GPU, same HDD, and newer Intel CPU but no big difference in performance.

 

Games been off for 20 mins and the fan is blowing normally.

On my CPUID utility, the CPU shows temperatures of about 60 degrees. Dedicated GPU is about 52 degrees according to MSI afterburner.

My room isn't cold (no AC right now) but it's honestly not more than 75 ish degrees fahrenheit in here when I was getting 98C readings. Not a hot environment by any means, especially with a ceiling fan and another fan on the ground.

I had no issues with this system. My sound was okay. Touchpad is a hair finnicky but I honestly don't mind.

I don't play that many games, but this high of an ambient temperature and this much drama when playing an 8 year old game (Half Life 2) is scary. I'm calling Micro Center tomorrow to see if they have any instock. Website didn't say they did. I have a week left on their original purchase stock so hopefully I can get one that works as it should.

Honestly envious of those of you that don't have issues. I was all set with this too. Bleh.

 

Woke up the machine this morning and it was sleeping at 40 degrees. Within 10 minutes of web browsing the CPU was already running at 60 C. The assembly is still fine, but that doesn't sound right

 

Thanks for the heads up! The problem with the nVidia isn't a problem for me, Ubuntu runs great on a Intel HD4000. The WiFI problem is more serious however, I use WiFi all the time.

The things with FN, backlit keys isn't true though. You can install this and the FN keys work in Linux:thumbsup:.

 

Hello,

I just got my Asus N56VZ few hours ago. It seems really well built and the audio quality is excellent for a laptop. The only complain I have so far is that the trackpad is quite crappy and it doesn't fit properly in it's place, the edge of it comes a little over the aluminium palm rest.

Also the 5400rpm HDD is driving me crazy. I had a 128GB 830 Samsung SSD in my old laptop, and didn't really remember how slow these HDDs were. I already bought an Intel 520 180GB SSD for my Asus, and tried to install it. I went into problems as the SSD fitted into the HD-caddy wont fit in the laptop. Side by side compared the stock HDD is the same thickness with the Intel 520 SSD. But when I put them in the HD-caddy the SSD somehow appears a little thicker in the caddy than the stock HDD. We are talking about probably tenths of a millimeter, but the caddy with SSD just wont fit in the laptop. And I'm not too keen forcing it in the laptop. Intel 520 has that spacer(7mm+2.5mm) that is easily removed, but it'll void the warranty + the stock screws are too long for the SSD without spacer. (GOOD JOB INTEL!)

Please help me, what could I do?

Has anyone else had this kind of problem?

 

It was a bit fiddly getting mine in, but I put the 1tb HDD in the caddy and it fitted fine. Try gently rocking it up and down as you push it in - it might be getting caught on something.

 

Well, I went ahead and removed the spacer (so I guess my warranty is now void) it still didn't fit. I was really confused. Then I just tried and attached the SSD to the HD-caddy with only 2 screws, so that the SSD sits as close to the back of the caddy as possible (my english skills aren't quite enough to explain this, as you probably noticed). And it fitted nicely, even with the spacer on!

When the SSD is mounted in the caddy the way I just mentioned the 2 other holes in the SSD do not match with the holes in the HD-caddy, so I can not put those 2 screws in. But it seems to be quite firm fit even with only 2 screws.

Anyways I installed clean W7 with only the necessary drivers on the SSD and this thing is now blazing FAST! I just gotta hope that Intel's reliability doesn't let me down

 

With the new bios update, 211, I noticed that the optical drive doesn't make nearly as much noise anymore, especially when using itunes. Nothing changed with the minor speaker pops though. Not sure what else changed yet. The optical drive being less noisy is mos noticeable.

 

...I don't get it.

There's barely any changes to the bios. And the changes they have made seems to be literally copying the "optimal" settings into the "failsafe" column. A bunch of features are still disabled, there's no changes to the bios-timing settings, there's no support for different bus-multiplers or dynamic changing of ram-timing. Acoustic settings for hdds that support that would have been an idea. Changing the 100% trip points for the fan higher, while actually using the formula to let the fan have more states than 10% and 100% would be an idea. And perhaps not messing with the passive sensor timings on the ddr-ram would have been an idea when that might basically screw over the entire computer if you're unlucky enough to have ram that has a surface sensor reporting anything at all. But no big deal, I guess they like being called up by angry people whose computer is croaking for no apparent reason, that support then can't fix.

Anyway. So basically, no changes to anything even half-significant -- and here's what I don't get: the bios has had NINE minor version changes. How does that happen? One version change per mouse-click? Changes going back and forth until the bios is randomly about the same as the previous version? ..throwing a 1d10 die to determine the number increase? ..

 

I agree with you... I'm going to upgrade and see what happens.
edit: or should I stick with 204?

edit: Just upgraded. I can't tell much a difference with anything. Benchmarks are the same (only compared WEI scores, which doesn't really say much). The important thing is that nothing is broken but things may have been improved. I say go for 211

 

If it's the same difference as before.. then why bother?

Btw - I'm really hoping everyone with a serial-number can log on to the Asus VIP/support site (vip.asus.com), and write them a note about the ram. And how it's difficult to know on beforehand whether a ram-setup is actually going to work. And that the "max 8Gb supported" thing in the specs is something that makes you wonder if Asus laptops routinely are crippled because their support-dudes are clueless.

And that the ram-timing settings actually support xmp-profiles - which would fit a high-performance laptop like this. As well as that they would have been better if they had simply followed the spd-settings every single ram-chip sold now has, instead of forcing a set of timing that effectively prevents people from upgrading. Etc.

 

Here is some temperarure measurement:

1) Web surfing -

2) 30 min playing Crysis 2 -

3) 10 min after turn off Crysis 2 -

 

How's the external temperatures when you're playing crysis 2? Does WASD become uncomfortably hot or anything?

 

Those look about right. Ambient temps play a big part in temperatures too. Also - even dusting out your vents when you don't think they need it helps a lot as well. Check out my temps. The laptop has been on for over 5 hours and doing a decent amount of work. Browsing/music/word/etc... No gaming though. I do have it on a cooling pad and dusted it out recently (even though it didn't need it). It's also quite cool in my room.
Temps:

If I let the computer sit completely idle for a few minutes the CPU will go down to as low as 41-42C. The cooling in this thing is great. I also use this hooked up to a 1080p monitor. I don't have any concrete gaming temps but I rarely ever see it go above 80 while 1080p gaming. Cheers!

Definitely not. The heat coming out of the laptop may be warm but the actual touchpad/WASD area is fine.

 

@ LulzChicken: How did you remove dust inside of your laptop? Would be interessting for everyone who wants to clean its laptop sooner or later.

Would be pretty nice if you could do a small tutorial.