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

When i ordered the refurbish model from Tiger Direct Canada, There was the laptop, the battery, and the power adapter, nothing else, no cd, no manual, nothing. I was pretty disappointed by that myself at the time.

(For some reason, there only seem to be refurbish model of the UL50VT-RBBBK05 on the market, was most likely a recall and something wrong with them )

All the driver and tool i'm using are the one downloaded from the official Asus support website, i downloaded it in the last week, so it's the last version of them.

So yes, i use the official asus VGA drivers, i readed nvidia one dont work.

If there was a way to get back a iso/dvd/backup of my pc that would cost me not much more than the dvd itself and the shipping, i would probably even be willing to buy it, but i doubt it's because of the file i'm using.

I skipped it during the recap, but i did try win XP before trying win 7, so i was using completly different file version(all downloaded from official asus support website), and i ended up with exactly the same probleme.

I'm pretty sure what i did qualify as clean install, for example, i readed the http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...icial-owners-lounge-redux-27.html#post6244979

pretty sure that that's what you mean by clean install.
Did the driver with the setup.exe, and i also tryed by the device manager and selecting them by hand.
Btw, when i try to install nvidia control pannel, it doesn't want to install either, dont recognize my card as a valid one.

Thx for your help.

 

Yeah, I did the full clean install using a USB stick, MS-USB tool and the digital river 64bit W7HP ISO. No problems using the driver disk so I think your problem is just bad ISO and or driver combo.

Check with Asus about their BB version of the recovery disks. What's the difference? You might want to google your recovery disks as well.

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=5479&catid=751

 

Thx again, no luck on google for a recovery download

Might try the asus one, 30$ to save a 500$ laptop is'nt that much, even to there no garenti it will fix my probleme.(the "Best Buy Models Only" might cause trouble, but the vga hybrid part must be standart even on a slitly different version)

Cause there still the Bios probleme that have'nt been explaine. It's not normal that i cant update it in commande line boot or directly in the bios with Ez flash.

And the original probleme might have come from a bios bug, since even before i mess up the partition myself, there was a HDD trouble that got "fix" by removing a "performance"(put compatibility rather than enchance in Sata operation mode) feature in the bios...

And i read on a different forum (cant remember wich, i did like a week of google search) that the symptome fit a bios probleme too, and one of the user with the same issue fix it with a bios flash.

Anyway, thx again, and if you have any input on the bios issue, please continue your good work

*edit* In the device manager, under computer, it's says "acpi x64-based pc"
is there some kind of drivers so that it recongnize the laptop as an asus?

 

Just received the Restore DvD from Asus.

Still having the same problem with the video card after the restore.

I'm gonna go with hardware problem, motherboard/bios related...

I recalculated, i'm actually just before 3 month rather than 4, so still under warranty, already called Asus and i 'msending it back RMA.

 

Did the recovery disk reformat the drive or just do an OS repair? The error "39" has come up before but no one posted back on the cause.

Let us know what Asus finds...

 

Complete re-format.

All automated, auto-boot on first disk, give 3 option :
1-format all and install on one partition
2- Format first partition and install on first partition
3-Format all and re-install two partition

Then it does a kind of windows install, then ask for the drivers disk, boot a bunch of time, run bunch of script once booted to install all the program and driver and boot a bunch of time again.

So it's not a backup restore, but it's not really a regular install either. It's like "installing" a backup, not restoring one, if it make sense.

Will keep you posted on Asus follow up.

 

Hi guys!

not sure if this is the right place, but i have an urgent problem.
i just spilled some orange juice on my ul50vg (there were just a couple of drops actually) - the didnt get through the keyboard that's for sure (i removed the keyboard block and double checked everything). The problem is that some buttons on the numpad became sticky and hard to press - there's some juice drops inside the keyboard and i have no idea how to clean it! i'm afraid of removing the keys cause i dont know how they get off and i might brake them completely (btw the sticky keys wor well, they're just sticky). So i was wondering if you guys have a clue how do i clean these keys? i really need your help. I checked the disassembly guide for that, but they only remove the keyboard block itself without disassemblying it. So how do i remove the keys? or should i put the whole keyboard into water for some time? help please

Many thanks

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortune with your UL50VG. I don't know if this will help, but here's a video tutorial on how to clean your keyboard.

I'm not sure if immersing the whole keyboard would be a good idea though. Even if water wouldn't cause shorting of the electronics, water can corrode and oxidize the delicate keyboard components.

I have no idea what would happen to the individual key caps if they are immersed in water, unless they're made of polycarbonate plastic that's not porous.

Having had to replace my former Asus A8He's keyboard for a princely sum before, I decided to get a keyboard skin as soon as I bought a new laptop. Sure it looks geeky and ugly on my UL80VT, but I'd prefer the dirt, finger oils and gunk to stick to the washable silicone skin instead of the keycaps.

Good luck with your keyboard rescue!

 

Has anyone installed the latest version of Asus Splendid screen color utility together with the official Asus Intel/NVidia hybrid drivers?

I did and one day noticed that the graphics switching button would not do anything at all (either from Intel to NVidia or vice versa). Clicking on the current GPU task tray icon told me that I had to close the ACEngserv.exe process first. I did so and sure enough, the hardware graphics switch worked just once. The ACEngserv.exe process re-appeared in Task Manager and I had to kill the process each time I wanted to change the GPU.

After browsing the official Asus forum pages, someone mentioned that Asus' Splendid utility was the cause of the problem. I uninstalled Splendid and true enough, the hardware graphics button worked perfectly as before!

Seems that Asus doesn't really bother to test the compatibility of their own utilities and relying on users/owners to do the troubleshooting for them.

 

Remove keyboard and flood with distilled water, not alcohol of any kind. We flush salt water flooded cameras at work. Removing any power source is the key to any success with flooded electronics.

Exercise the wet keys and flush a second time as needed until sugars and gook dissolved.

Now the important part; every key must be bone dry before placing back into circuit. You may have to place keyboard under box fan for three days depending on nature of the keys. Patience is cheaper than a $30 keyboard?

 

Look like i was right, hardware problem, nice to know i'm not that incompetent :

But they sure taking there time

 

Hey, I was wondering if any of you can help me quick. I have a ul50vt, the best buy edition.

I recently think that my machine has been running a little hotter than usual, with the fan running more often and louder.

I am wondering if any of you can use speedfan 4.22 and post what your CPU temps are under the following conditions.

Turbo33 off, integrated video card, at 1339 Mhz. The system idle around 1.2GB of memory used. and near 10% cpu load.

Turbo33 on, integrated video.

turbo33 on with dedicated video.


I dont need exact numbers just a ball park. Seems like my machine will not go below about 33C no mater what the setting are. 40 or so seems normal for me depending on CPU load.


Thanks again.

 

The fan on my UL80vt has gotten noticeably louder the last month or so. It used to be whisper quite but now it hums along at pretty much all times.

I'm wondering if there's dust that needs to be cleaned, and have been looking for instructions but haven't found anything useful so far. Should I just blow compressed / canned air through the vents and keyboard?

 

I just realized the same... IT used to run passively - but now i have 38C on CPU - and it blows air all the time...... Few months back it used to run at ~45C idle, but no working fan... Wonder if its dirty or what? I cleaned it a bit yesterday, but it didnt help

Well i found out where is the difference - yes it still can run passively (no running fan at all) BUT it needs to be slightly elevated on the desk.

When i elevated its rear about 2 cm (i forgot that i used to use it like that) it stopped its fan, and now the silence is back ^_^

 

Received my laptop back

They changed the mother board.

 

Hi Guys.

I'm liking this laptop but i'm fairly certain that the trackpad buttons are amongst the worst that I have ever encountered.

Has anyone modded their buttons, with any success? I can't be the only person developing RSI.

I'm looking at doing the UX50 Backlit keyboard mod so I thought I might try to do something about the buttons when I have it apart.

 

Hi guys. I've had the ul80vt for about a year now. Great laptop despite all of it's drawbacks as the limited viewing angles and horrible mousepad rocker(i use touch to tap most of the time anyway.)

I've begun to get annoyed by the front indicator leds, especially when watching a movie at night. It doesn't seem there's a way to do it in the bios menu so would it be difficult for me to put electrical tape over them if I've never opened a laptop before?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated. It's been really bugging me.

 

hi there! this (POST 1063) modification leads to terrible tearing effects in video playback.
Roll back driver, if you need to have good video playback quality.

the topic is old but I needed to tell you guys... maybe there is someone who has got problems playing videos.

dino

 

Hi again,
I tried the newer driver again because of better fps in games. The tearing problem is easy to fix. Just enable vsync for global settings in the nvidia settings. And for games disable vsync manually for higher frame rates.

 

I have a UL80VT. I upgraded the Power4Gear Hybrid to latest version 1.1.42. WHEN i am logged in as an Administrator, it works fine. However, when I am logged in normally, the Gadget does not display the slidebar between On and Off for turbo +33 mode. Also, the Graphic for the gadget is completely different with a box that just says Power4Gear with a little speedometer. This worked fine in earlier version (I had 1.1.37 previous). Any idea how to get the gadget to work for non-Admin user?

On an unrelated note, has the Nvidia driver been updated? I am still using the original that came with laptop.

Thanks

 

I am still running the original graphic driver (UL80VT). Has a newer driver been released? If not, is there an unofficial driver that is stable?

Thanks

 

My UL80VT has been ruined ever since it downloaded a certain Windows update...

Basically, it was determined that my hybrid video drivers were "outdated" because I didn't have the latest drivers one would normally have for the Intel 4 Series Express chipset. So the drivers were automatically downloaded for me, and naturally that didn't work out too well since I need those hybrid drivers in order to be able to use both the integrated card and the Geforce G210M. I'm not too computer savvy so when this all happened, I had no idea what was going on or why I couldn't switch to the Geforce. Eventually I figured out that it was because of the drivers, but I wasn't able to roll them back, and re-downloading the drivers from the Asus site didn't work. I found out that this was because my Geforce card had become "unplugged." I had to force the device manager to show hidden devices, and sure enough, the Geforce G210M had a Code 45 status- "Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer." There weren't any solutions online, as they all said that this was completely normal, since a Code 45 should only show up after a device really had been disconnected.
I most certainly did not open my laptop and take the card out, so I shouldn't be having this issue. I called Asus tech support and was told that I should just right click the card in the device manager and "uninstall" it so that my computer would redetect it upon reboot. The card was not redetected, so now it is simply as though the Geforce does not even exist. I've had this problem for well over a month now, and tech support is no help at all, and I am officially desperate at this point. Can anyone give me any suggestions to help my computer recognize my second video card?

 

After a few hours of searching, I keep finding links back to this thread, so I'm guessing you guys are the place to go for my questions. ASUS is inept, and refuses to help me.

Backstory: I just purchased a recertified UL50VT from NewEgg, based on the specs vs. the price range I wanted. One of the first things I do whenever I get a new laptop is wipe the factory drive (hate bloatware), install a fresh copy of whatever OS it came with, and then proceed to load drivers. I had previously purchased a recertified G72GX from NewEgg two months ago, and did exactly that, so I was not expecting much difference. Oh how wrong I was.

1) After Installing OS (Windows 7 Home Premium x64), the Atheros AR8131 driver is installed automatically by Win 7, however, each time the computer is started, once you log into Windows, Win promptly sees & installs a new network adapter of Atheros AR8131 #xx, with xx being a number that goes up each time you log in. Currently, it's at "Atheros AR8131 ... #24". This happens regardless of whether or not I use the driver that comes with Win 7, or I use the driver provided by ASUS website. Does anyone know why it could be doing this? calling ASUS was throughly useless, as they told me that it was due to "software incompatability". I asked what the incompatability was since the only thing on it was the OS, and they told me that I had to use "their" version of Windows 7 Home Premium x64, not a clean one. I asked what was changed in their version, and they said there were no changes. So then why do I have to use your version? "incompatabilty" ::facepalm::

2) This model comes with the hybrid video system. I think that in theory, this is an awesome technology, however in practice, obviously there are some differences. Currently the only drivers provided by ASUS are nVidia v186.88. These drivers are old. I realize that I must use the ones provided by ASUS as the video driver package requires the hybrid tech built in, but has anyone heard of any plans to update these? or are they going to be stuck there. I wouldn't mind if the laptop would accept the reference drivers from nVidia (like me g72gx did), but even trying to download the newest v260.99 Verde drivers refuses to install. When it tries, nVidia says there's no compatable hardware.
I read up on Natulis' work and it looks like he's close to releasing an updated version of the hybrid drivers to work with this series, which would be great. Baring that, I assume I'm stick with what ASUS gives me? and if that's the case, would it be better to spend the little extra money to get somethhing that's compatible with nVidia's drivers so I'm not held back by ASUS?

 

Zxurian, I recommend returning the UL50VT while you can since having updated video drivers is important to you.

I purchased a UL80VT one year ago. If I had known the hybrid drivers would never be updated by ASUS, I would have never purchased this model because CUDA updates and Flash acceleration are of value to me.

 

Thanks, I'm leaning towards that myself, but it'll be up to the person who's actually spending the money on to decide. My recommendation will go towards the return though.

In case he decides to keep it (it's a shame, it really is a nice laptop), has any one else experienced the reinstalling LAN card issue?

 

hi i am a ul30vt dude... but still wonder...has someone in this thread found a tool or something to control the fan in our laptops?

 

just wondering. the processor on this machine is it able to be on par with one such as a AMD Turion II Dual-Core P540 2.4G. also i want to know if this system will be able to run Assassin Creed 2 (not brotherhood) on either medium to low settings.. the ul50vt (210m 512mb geforce edition) . cause my main concern is for the CPU . SU7300 at 1.3GHz? i have seen benchmarks of it at the 1.3GHz state but never when it is overclocked to 1.7-1.9GHz
so will it play?
thank you for your cooperation!

 

Kynigos, the ULx0VT set to Turbo meets Assassins Creed II minimum hardware requirements so it is probably playable on low settings. If you are considering a purchase of a ULx0VT for even occasional gaming, I advise you to get something else. Asus has not released updated video drivers since 8/2009.

 

well im going to get a refurbished ul50vt model since its in my price range so i guess i will have to be getting it. even if i can play cod 3 through to modern warfare 2 i would be happy for that. however i wanted to find out if it could run assassin creed 2 at even low settings because the processor of the ulx0vt series was really bugging me

 

I picked up a refurbished UL80vt, looks brand new had all the normal stickers covering everything etc. But the battery seems like its not even picking up any charge. Ive had it plugged in since I put the battery in, and it says its charging but notta on the battery meter. I wounder if I should try the freezer trick to revive it ? or did I miss something when doing the install ?

 

I have a UL50Vt-X1. In Device Manager, under "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" I have four (4) different entries of "NVIDIA HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO" and the last entry is "Realtek High Definition Audio" bringing the total entries in all to 5.
I have never changed anything here, seems to have come like this by factory default.
Everything works fine also, except for SRS Premium Sound control panel not being able to go to external speaker mode, it just recognises anything I plug in as headphones. Any ideas here? Also on how to update the SRS program.

 

Hi all,

I was reading through the forum but wasn't able to find a definitive answer to my question. I was wondering if anyone has been able to successfully install the internal bluetooth receiver in the UL80VT. This is the only receiver I was able to find on ebay: 2.0 Bluetooth Module + CABLE BT-183 ASUS UL80Jt UL80Vt on eBay.ca (item 140479205997 end time 15-Jan-11 12:10:50 EST). Is this the correct one?

From what I understand of Li-ion batteries they shouldn't be stored at temperatures below freezing. Any chance you can still take it back to where you bought it?

 

If anyone is interested, Canadacomputers.com has a UL80VT-A2 on sale for 699. probably only relevant to people in Canada. they have the A1 as well

 

I am having an issue where my UL50VT freezes after the install of the NVIDIA driver. I am currently running dual boot with 2 copies of windows 7, that way I can keep my work safe from toying with the damned video card. Question is, has anyone figured out a way to get it to be stable. I got my hands on an original OEM windows 7 premium disk without any updates, and used it for a clean install. Then as soon as I install the drivers for the NVIDIA G210 off of Asus website. The computer starts freezing soon after login. I've tried setting the power settings to high performance and that does nothing. Can anyone please help me figure this out. Even if I can't get it 100% stable if I can get it somewhere close that would work for me, even if it means modified drivers or whatever. Tell me how to figure this out please.

 

Check out
Modded 197.16 Hybrid Graphics Driver for UL30/50/80VT
or
Nautis1100 Hybrid and Optimus Drivers

 

I am using the 197.16 graphics driver and it installs fine but has the same freezing problem

 

Hey guys, I'm wondering if there are any long term problems with the UL50VT. I'm planning to have it replace my problematic asus G50Vt (Dead wifi, headphone switch and disk drive) with something thinner lighter and with a far better battery life. I do play games such as Portal and other source mod games and am wondering if it will fail like my G50.

 

Hi all,
I've owned my UL50vt since late 2009. When I first got the machine I updated most of the drivers and utilities from the Asus site. The so-called Asus Live Update utility in the notification icon area never really worked, as it always said the system was up to date. Anyway, my machine is running well, hasn't given me any major problems, etc., ie, I like it the way it is.

A couple days ago, boom, the Asus Live Update icon pops up and informs me to download and install "a System Configuration Utility", an "ASUS configuration utility", an "ASUS Virtual Camera utility", and an "ASUS wireless switch (Wireless Console3) utility". After all this time the ASUS Live Update utility is now working?

So, the questions are: Anyone out there getting messages from your ASUS Live Update utility after all this time? Are these updates neccessary? I guess I could create a restore point, then download and install these updates. But not sure I want to go through the hassle.
TIA

 

im looking at one of these, in near new condition, ul80vt, 2 months old. he wont budge on works out around $650 US.

is there anything else my money could be better spent on? i dont see any sandy bridges being released in my country for some time etc.

 

why does it last longer?

 

i took the 80vt for $600, its in as new condition (in the box), so i thought why not. warranty etc is still 19 months.

now i just need to know which bloatware i can remove.

 

a few days in and im loving my ul80vt ! but have a couple questions...

1) is it normal for the vent on left side to get soooooooo hot when gaming, i mean i cant hold my fingers there its that hot....

2) im not sure how to best use all the different power modes. is it best to just set it to high performance (fn space bar) and does that set the GPU to dedicated?

 

Performance mode forces the dedicated graphics regardless of whether the device is plugged in to power. Unless you require dedicated graphics on the go I suggest you set it to entertainment and let it automatically switch back and forth. Quiet office does the same thing. Battery saver forces intel graphics regardless of whether its plugged in or not.

You get the idea.

Yes, it gets quite warm with heavy gaming. If you're worried, download a program called HWmonitor and let it run while you're gaming. It will tell you the lowest and highest temps you're reaching.

 

thank you very much for the reply.

i find the whole thing quite buggy for power saving.

sometimes when im on high performance, the gma card is working, and sometimes it fluctuates, i know this because in games it has a certain FPS for each card. maybe a driver issue? i have not updated anything yet.

the heat doesnt worry me too much, to be expected really ;-).

i love machine overall though. im becoming a bit of an asus fanboi

 

Can anyone help me get a second hard drive in my UL50VT? I took a part the optical drive, but was disappointed to find the sata connector with a smaller than normal power connection... the optical drive also seems a little slimmer than most, but maybe not... any advice? Thanks.

 

yamahaaalex37, you just need to figure out whether you have a 12.7mm or 9.5mm optical drive, then see this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-ssd-hdd-storage-using-optical-bay-caddy.html

 

GraphiX Boost Button Broken

Does anyone know of a good version of the RealTEK audio driver that gives user defined EQ freedom, and seamless graphics switching? Why the hell would an audio process stop the graphics card from switching anyway? Just when everything seems to be perfect with this laptop...#@$%#@$!!

The default "Realtek HD Audio Manager" (version 6.01.5936) has no user defined EQ (graphical equalizers that you can set manually), therefore the sound coming from the laptop isn't as good as it should be. There are only lame options like Rock, Jazz, Live, Classical, etc.

I upgraded the sound driver to one that wasn't even in the UL50VT-X1 list on the ASUS support webpage, because there is only one driver there. The new ones work okay, but when it came time to switch graphics cards, the process "RAVCpl64.exe" has to be ended manually in the task manager.

Do I have to live with the crappy default driver? I've been uninstalling and reinstalling and shutting down and restarting to install different versions, (the new 2 step way involving restart sucks) some have the user-defined EQ option, some don't, (aparently RealTEK thought people were dumb enough to buy cheap audio equipment off the shelf with Rock, Pop, Live and Classical presets, but then ended up having to put the EQ back in, in later versions), but all of the drivers except the default one, give some kind of retarded error. "Close these programs before switching blah blah.. bleh."

I'm fed up, f*ck this endless loop of fail, and f*ck this non-EQ driver. F*ck you RealTEK for removing the EQ from some versions of your retarded audio driver. And f*ck ASUS for being so damn sexy. Love this laptop.

 

The slim drive on ul50 is actually smaller than the standard 9.5mm. You''l need to extract this out of your caddy


and attach it to the bare hard drive. Then you probably need to use double sided tape to attach it to the chassis. You would need to at least take keyboard off to make sure you position it correctly.

 

My DVD drive does not seem to spin up any more on my UL50VT. Anybody else have this issue? Anybody know if there is a fix to it or is my drive ruined?

 

Check and see if it's powered down in P4G. You can also check device manager in My Computer properties to see if it's disabled.