* OFFICIAL UL80VT and UL50VT / VS Owner's Lounge *

Uninstall Power4Gear Hybrid, keyboard filter device utility, and all the ATK utilities first. Then reinstall them in the following order:
1. ATKACPI driver
2. ATK Generic Function Service utility
3. ATK Hotkey utility
4. Keyboard filter device utility
5. Power4Gear Hybrid version v1.1.25 (this should always be last after all the other drivers)

Run Power4Gear and look for a button on the lower left side of the utility. If the button is not red with the word "Turbo" on it, then click the button to enable Turbo33 mode. If it's already red with the word "Turbo" on it then congratulations, Turbo33 mode is already active.

I have the silver UL80VT, and it has the squeaky palm rest and sharp edges at the base of the palm rest where the top silver plastic part meets the bottom black plastic part. I've learned to type without resting my hand on the palm rest so that solves that particular problem. It won't squeak as long as you don't press down on the palm rest.

As for the recovery media DVD, it's a clean version of Windows 7. The drivers and Asus utilities are included on a separate disc.

 

Thanks for the info, now that you told me i ll consider it.

 

So since ASUS has a policy of churning and burning models will they never write another driver for this laptop? Or are we looking at 6-12mo intervals between release?

I noticed someone had a "workaround" for updating the nVidia drivers but there was apparently some failures on certain functions (pg 106)...

Any update on that?

Also ... regarding all the reviews about gaming capacity, would this laptop be better served (for gaming) if you maxed out the memory to 8gb?

I'm considering this model or the N61xx-X1 ... portability and battery life are important but so is a little gaming (CS/CSS, WoW, etc).

Thanks for the excellent site!

 

Well guys I finally have it working, for some strange reasons, I did what everybody told me to do but in the end, I had to reformat my notebook and I followed what to install first as said above. Thanks again for all the help!

 

I've been using the self-updated hybrid graphics driver for 3 weeks now and it's been great, no problems whatsoever. All the features work, including switching to Intel integrated and back again. AFAIK, the only problem reported is that some older games have trouble with the driver, but that's Nvidia's fault for breaking support for older games in order to optimize the driver for newer games. With the new driver you get CUDA, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and hardware-accelerated Flash HD video.

I don't believe Asus will be releasing any new hybrid drivers for the VT models since they switched to Nvidia Optimus technology. Their main priority right now is to get as many new customers as they can by releasing a gazillion different models to please everybody. Eventually when Asus runs out of new customers and existing customers start leaving Asus in droves due to poor driver and tech support, Asus will hopefully concentrate more on providing support for existing customers to keep them loyal and also repair Asus' reputation.

As for gaming, the VT models can handle modern games well enough at low to medium settings, but it's still not a gaming notebook. It gets really hot during heavy gaming, and has somewhat poor ventilation which would shorten its lifespan when used for lots of heavy gaming. A notebook cooling pad will help, so better use one if you're going to use the VT model for extended gaming sessions.

 

Itaru, I've been reading your posts with interest...

I'm very happy with the way my UL80VT is running but I want to optimise it where possible...

Windows updates aside, can you please let me know if I'm missing anything off the list here... just want to make sure I'm getting the most out of my pc !

update bios to latest version
update power 4 gears to latest version
update nvidia to latest version, using workaround.

cheers !

 

Latest BIOS version off the Asus download page for UL80VT is 213. I've been using that version since it was first released and so far no problems with it.

Latest Power4Gear Hybrid version is 1.1.30 but there's a bug where the GPU settings for all modes get reset during notebook restart. Best version to use is 1.1.25 since it has the least amount of annoying problems for the UL80VT. The only bug I've found with 1.1.25 is that the Power buttons & lid settings for Plugged in mode doesn't save at all but will go back to defaults. This bug has been fixed in 1.1.30, but this version (and also 1.1.26 and 1.1.27) has the much more annoying GPU settings reset bug. Some people who've tried it said they didn't get the GPU settings reset bug, so YMMV.

Good luck in updating the Nvidia drivers. Make sure to use the notebook version of 195.62, not the desktop version.

 

great - thanks for that info.

 

Definitely seems like a good lappy. I'm stuck on the N82 now ... so we'll see how that is when it hits. If it's not as impressive as I'm hoping it will be, then I'll probably just say screw it and get the UL80vt. By then the price should be down a few hundo's and I can afford to drop another 4GB of ram in it and an SSD and upgrade the optical to a BluRay combo.

Thanks for your input - I appreciate it!

 

Going to bump into here right quick.

For those with non-SSD systems, about how long are boot times and executions for some standard programs, like internet and word processing?

 

Roughly 45secs to 1 min for boot time, with plenty of unnecessary programs installed. After a clean install boot time was approx 25secs.

Firefox loads in approx 1.5 to 2 secs, Internet explorer & chrome approx 0.5 secs, itunes with large music library 3 or 4 secs.

 

I have not posted in here in a while. How are you all using blue tooth? Just a dongle or did you some how install it in the computer? I recently bought a microcrap blue track wireless mouse, the dongle fried in about 6 hours. So I am curious on what you all have done for the mouse.

 

Got the UL50vt from best buy last week & so far, so good. Haven't noticed any issues with squeaking or flex, but mine has the rubberized matte palm rest & touch pad. The screen could be better & looks washed out but I think I can live with it. The lid also feels stiff to open - does it get better?

Other than that everything about the battery life is true & the processor is fast enough for what I need it to do. I pounded it for 3-4 hours with updates, streaming video & played some COD (all of this on max performance) and the thing still had over 50% battery left. This thing rocks!

 

I bought one of those cheapo Ebay dongles. Works a treat!

 

How horrible is the webcam? I'm slightly disappointed that ASUS didn't at least put 1.3mp for the new ULxxJTs coming out. 1.3mp is pretty much crap quality, but at least it's loads better than the 0.3mp that the current ULxxVTs have.

 

hmm... 0.3 isn't much worse that standard definition TV. For personal use I don't really have any need for more resolution. I think that 0.3 strikes a good balance between CPU requirements, picture quality & bandwidth needs, at this point in time.

I guess it's always nice to have the most cutting edge technology though, if you are going to make use of it.

 

how much battery life do you guys get from a full charge? mine doesn't show anything above 10 hrs at 100% and i usually get around 8-9 hrs with min brightness and wifi off

Does the battery stop charging after 95%/100%? I'm uncertain whether leaving the battery while it is at 100% would be a good idea since it could potentially wear out the battery?

 

I just got a UL50VT last night from Best Buy. I've only used it for an hour, but I'm happy so far. It is a huge improvement over my 5-year old Dell with single core 1.7, 1GB RAM...oh, and a period key that doesn't work and a touchpad that won't work unless I hold in a key on the keyboard. Trashed.

The Asus will be used for casual light gaming, web browsing, Zune, and (this one is probably unique...) astrophotography.

Love the rubber-ish palm rest. Still going through and cleaning the junk off of it and doing some upgrades. One thing that shocked me was that the 50VT has the nvidia and an integrated card. I tried to update the nvidia driver but the laptop was using the integrated card at the time, so it thought it didn't have the nvidia GPU and wouldn't allow me to proceed with the update. I haven't figured out how to activate the nvidia yet.

EDIT: Went back a few pages and found the solution to my driver update issue. I love this forum...

 

Power4Gear 1.1.33 is out

 

Anyone know if you can register the laptop online for the 2 year warranty or do you need to send in the warranty card?

Thanks

 

got the link??

 

Why does the notebook support site for the V50t not show this version of the utility (Power4Gear)? It still shows 1.1.25.

 

Brightness at -5 and gamma at 0.75 really helps with the faded screen on discrete mode, what's everybody else using?

 

Go to Asus's website and click on the support -> download link. Then instead of entering the computer's model info do this:

For "select product": click on "Notebook" in the drop-down menu
For "select series": click on "Apps"
For "select models": click on "P4GHybrid"
and then click on search.
Now click on the + next to "Utilities" and download the latest version.

I hope that helps. I'm eager to hear if this one works from somebody.

-Jason

 

My G210M stopped working.

Earlier today a movie in iTunes was lagging. Googled it, and someone recommended a simple driver update. I think I installed the same, latest, driver over top of the old one. From then on it hasn't worked. I've uninstalled the driver and deleted the driver software, but it never works. If I uninstall it and let it automatically install itself, it reads as "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter", and it says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". If I install the latest nvidia drivers for this video card and for this OS, it will read as "NVIDIA Geforce G210M", but then it says "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)". How do I fix this without doing anything too drastic?

Thanks.

 

Go into safe mode. Uninstall any graphics driver you currently have. Restart system and go back into safe mode. Install graphics driver. (note: if you're installing a driver from laptopvideo2go, make sure you use the correct modded INF file). Restart again and run windows normally.

 

Alright I tried that. It says "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)".
The driver software I'm using is straight from nvidia's website.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_195.62_whql.html

 

During what step are you getting this error?

 

I went into safe mode, uninstalled the video card driver software, restarted and back in safe mode, installed the nvidia drivers for it, then restarted again back to normal. That's when it says that in the device manager for the G210M.

 

In that case, try to perform a system restore back to when your laptop wasn't having any issues.

 

Ok I did that and it is working now according to the device manager, BUT, going into the nvidia control panel it says "The NVIDIA Display Panel extension cannot be created. Possible reasons include: Version mismatch. Reinstalling display drivers may solve this problem." So should ... I just leave it like that then? I'm certainly not going to reinstall drivers again because that will break it.

 

The drivers on Nvidia's site will NOT work on the Hybrid graphics system on the UL80Vt. For one thing, they don't have the Intel Mobile Graphics component, plus the .inf file is different and I am sure there are many other differences as well. Right now, you need to go into safe mode, uninstall whatever drivers you have installed that are screwing things up and maybe even clean up the mess with a driver cleaner. Then install the ORIGINAL Asus Hybrid driver. You may get lucky and find an existing copy on your hard drive here: C:\eSupport\eDriver\Software\Display\NVIDIA\NB9X_NB10X_MV_HYBRID\WIN7_64_8.15.11.8688\DISPLAY\ Or you can get if off your factory driver disk, or go to the Asus UL80Vt driver download site (be sure to download the version for Windows 7 64)-I repeat, DO NOT use the drivers on Nvidia's site. I know the Asus driver is older (Version V8.15.11.8688, commonly known as v186.88), but you need to install it first to get your UL80Vt back up and running. After you get things going properly again, you can update your ASUS Hybrid driver to v195.62. It's a little tricky, but if you follow the directions, it will work perfectly! Here is the link, follow the instructions carefully: http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...postcount=2299

Be aware that although this procedure is not authorized by Asus, I and many, many others have upgraded in this way and our machines work perfectly. Good Luck

 

Ok thanks guys.

 

Is there a way to follow those instructions but use DOX drivers instead?

 

Does anybody know if the ul80vt come with HDD password?

 

I just tried it out. Works like a charm. They added a desktop gadget that lets you switch Turbo on/off (kind of pointless).

Couple random questions:
1) Has anybody figured out how to deal with the fingerprints? It seems the slightest bit of oil from the hands seems to be sticking to it. perhaps coating it with something so fingers don't add to the cover

2) The webcam is a bit shotty... 0.3 MP doesn't really cut it. I'm interested in finding a replacement part, 1.3MP or 2.0MP would be perfect

Edit:
Alright... so I had an intimate moment with my laptop (I was vaseline-ing her up). It made the dark cover appear darker, which is pretty nice. but the fingerprint situation *very slightly* improved. because its darker, it is harder to see. I'm not in a very bright environment right now.. so can't 100% confirm this now

Another thing about the Power4Gear update; they seemed to have fixed that bug, where if you switched to Integrated, the taskbar would go into Auto-Hide mode (had been annoying me, so good to see it's fixed). And its possibly just psychological; but it seems like the switch between integrated and back to the dedicated card is faster

 

Hello there,

first time in the forum (as a registered user). I just bought a new UL80vt and I started with some trouble: the battery doesn't charge, it's stuck at 36%... actually if I disconnect it, it goes dead, so the 36% isn't accurate either.
I read in other asus threads that you can reset bios with paperclip, but I haven't found any reset button.

Can you help me locate the button? Or should I ask for a battery replacement?

Thanks
Daniel

 

just like to check with you ul80vt users when using the intergrated Intel's GMA 4500MHD are you all able to use the hdmi?

 

Not all Asus laptops have a BIOS reset button. If there is, it will be a small pin-sized hole on the button of the laptop with this symbol: >o<

1. Best to just wash your hands before using your laptop. I don't think there's any oil/grime protector coating available that will ward off all fingerprints. I don't think putting a petroleum based jelly substance on your laptop would be a good idea for preventing fingerprints either
I would assume it would make the laptop more prone to fingerprints and makes the surface greasy.

2. It's possible, but I don't think anyone on the forums have tried it (yet).

Yes, that's how it is even for the UL30VT series.

 

thx for the reply..but when i plug in the hdmi cable n press the screen switch button it doesnt go to the lcd tv.

i had to enable the nvidia 210m then will the switch screen button work.

 

Even if you switch from the nvidia 210M to integrated graphics while you have HDMI connected to your external monitor, your laptop is actually still running on the nvidia 210M graphics card. You can confirm this by running GPUz and by entering the nvidia control panel. If you are indeed running on integrated graphics, there won't be an nvidia control panel option when you right click on your desktop and GPUz will show your 210M graphics card running at 0MHz.

 

i tried setting it to run the intel GMA 4500MHD rebooted then connect the hdmi cable but pressing the fn + screen switch button only lets me choose the laptop lcd screen..but if i were to enable the nvidia 210m pressing the fn + screen switch button allows me to choose between using the laptop lcd/hdmi/lcd+hdmi (in extended display).

is there any setting i need to do for the intel gma 4500mhd so that it can output to hdmi?

 

Yes, that's because HDMI will only work with the Nvidia GPU enabled. If you want to use an external monitor with the integrated Intel graphics, you will need to use a VGA cable.

 

ohh ic ic i misunderstood ur first reply i thought u meant its possible to use the hdmi even when using the integrated graphic card.

what about those models without the extra graphic card their integrated graphic cards also can't output to hdmi?

 

No problem

Yes, there are some laptops such as the Asus N10E series with only an Intel GMA950 integrated graphics that can output through HDMI. I'm not exactly sure why the UL80VT and UL30VT series can't do the same, but I'm assuming it has something to do with the switchable graphics driver that limits HDMI output while on integrated mode.

 

ic ic thx alot david

 

I was wondering if anyone has installed the new Verde Notebook Release 197.16 and if everything is running okay.

 

Just wondering if anyone's tried the new versions of Power4gear?
I couldn't get 1.1.33 to install on my ul80vt, kept pausing towards the end, haven't tried any of the others yet.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?model=P4GHybrid&os=30&SLanguage=en-us

 

I'm also unable to install, it says that there was a problem with the windows installer package.

 

Is there any way for me to rebind the FN + Arrow keys (Media player keys) to be used in winamp instead?