Asus N56V – the superlaptop. Here running The Sims 3.
The day before yesterday, my main computer – the black tower desktop from Multicom – started rebooting randomly. Well, not entirely randomly: When playing games – including browser games – it turns itself off and back on every few minutes. When using just Opera or yWriter, it lasts hours.
The reason this started was probably the tropical heat, but cooling the machine down doesn’t seem to help it now.
A better man than I might have taken it as a hint from Above to stop playing games and get on the Jacob’s ladder of love, wisdom, self-reflection and progress,or something like that. But I am not a better man than myself, so the thought did not even strike me until after I had already bought a new laptop that is more powerful than the big black beast from 2009.
***
I have searched Google for reviews of the Asus N56V, but there are pages and pages of copy + paste of the same review, written about a pre-production model. Guys, don’t do this, copying and pasting other people’s reviews. Just link to it, for goodness sake. Like this: Asus N56V review at Techradar. Don’t fill up my first six Google pages with copy and paste.
That said, the machine is so new, there probably aren’t a lot of reviews up yet. And this one says it pretty well without going on and on. This is not a compromise between weight and performance: It is performance without compromise. Well, it is still a laptop, so you can’t put in extra video cards or extra hard disks or things like that. But everything you can do with your desktop that’s too heavy for a toddler to topple, you can do with this laptop.
OK, I may exaggerate slightly. But the machine is more powerful than my desktop from 2009, at least. It has a quad-core processor too, but more modern and faster; each core runs two threads. It has 6 GB of RAM – the tower machine has 4 GB but can only use 3.25 GB. Since some of the memory is used by Windows itself, any extra memory is available to programs. In the case of Sims 3, the difference is quite noticeable. It is pretty much the ultimate Sims 3 machine. And of course it can handle any sane business use, including speech recognition. So, the future has arrived, and it is portable.
(I still intend to fix the desktop. Someday.)
Do you, by any chance, know when this is being released to the general public?
Assuming we still talk about the N56V laptop, I bought it in an ordinary electronics shop here in Norway. I am not affiliated with Asus, so I don’t know their release schedule for other countries. Sorry!
Touchpad impossible to use (cursor flies off uncontrollably when touchpad accidentall touched by palm), crashes badly too frequently, and that’s after only 1 week of very light usage. Not looking good…..
The touchpad sensitivity definitely needs some adjustment in my opinion, I am using the machine with a trackball now but you probably don’t want to pack that if you bring it along. Haven’t seen any crashes, glitches or error screens so far though… (knocks wood). Pretty happy with it and using it every day now. But I agree the touchpad is not a selling point.
I’ve changed once mine because of crashes…. but the new one seems to do the same thing…. and that’s with only a few chrome tabs open, skype video call and maybe excel (something my 5 year old laptop would handle with no problems)….. I need to contact asus again…
It is unfortunately true that there is very little quality control on computers before they reach the customer – at the factory they only check that the machine can be turned on, it seems. So keep returning them till you get a good one. Mine runs day and night without the slightest glitch. At the moment it runs Firefox with 8 tabs, Opera with 6 tabs + Opera Unite which streams music to other devices over the Internet, and Filezilla, Notepad, Task Manager, a couple Explorer folders, Media Player Classic and Sims 3.
But I just checked that I still have the receipt – just in case!
Hi guys i just bought the N56V today from the market
Price – £999
i7 – 3610QM,2.3Ghz
Bluray drive
8GB Ram (not sure if its 1600mhz or 1333mhz)
Hard Drive 1TB
Graphics Nvdia Geforce GT 630M 2GB.
So far it crashed once while i was using Reason, a music production software. I was using a usb keyboard to play notes via the software synths and i notice 7 millisecond output lag which is same as my 2009 desktop, it was AMD Dual core with 3GB RAM. So i am a bit skeptical about this new laptop.
The Bluray drive seems fragile so have tohandle it with care when putting the disc in.
The body of the laptop is nice but to me it feels a tiny bit cheap. I mean that they could have used a more nice material but i don’t really have any compains about it. The sound is really “incredible”. Overall look of the laptop is great. It crashed once so lets see if it crashes abruptly couple of more times in 30 days then i will just get it replaced.
PS – BTW @itlandm even my desktop from 2009 started restarting itself randomly at random times so i go this new laptop. I think we are almost travelling on the same train mate haha.
Yeah, that was a strange coincidence. I must admit that for each passing day I am in less hurry to replace the desktop – the only thing I kind of miss is the SSD I used as system drive and swap area. Still no glitches on the Asus. Not sure what I would throw at it to drive it crazy. I don’t do music or video editing – the hardest thing I have to give my computers is Sims 3 with all the expansions, and it could pretty much have run that with one of its four cores.
But if a computer acts up right after you get it, back to the shop with it. It is like there is no quality control on computers except by customers. Seriously, I had three Fujitsu-Siemens desktops in a row which came with some small broken or loose part, like a fan or a CD drive (it was back then). Having to drag those heavy beasts back to the shop was not my favorite exercise! At least laptops are easier to handle that way.
Hi,
Today when i turned the laptop on it was updating the OS but after a while i heard a crackling noise(like a small blast or pop noise) and the laptop just turned off. Then i tried to turn it on again but still it didn’t start, so i just went back to store and just returned it. I don;t know what exactly happened but i can say that the new ASUS N56V models are a bit fishy.
Negative Points
*Very loose DVD-ROM(when you open it you always have a fear that you might break it)
*The capslock & wifi notification light wasn’t working.
*The finish and material used for the body looks cheap compared to the price we are paying for the laptop £999.
*It was an i7 Ivy Bridge 3610QM Quad-Core with Hyper threading(that means 4 virtual cores+4physical cores) each core running @ 2.30GHZ and 8GB of RAM and still when i installed my music software and was using my USB MIDI keyboard there was a lag of several milliseconds and it was almost about 1 sec sometimes which is same as my AMD desktop from 2009 which was dual core and 3GB RAM.
PS – This just might be my bad luck that i might have got one of the bad piece form the stock (damn it happens almost every time when i buy something new, WTF my bad luck is fucking shit)
Now i am using my desktop which restarts itself randomly and is now playing songs at random times even when i have no applications open and the songs are not even on my computer i have never heard them. It must be virus so i was scanning my pc but as soon as i start scanning the antivirus uses ram and CPU and i think my cpu can’t handle it well so it restarts it self so now point of scanning as well. Maybe the Hard-drive is corrupt as i told you my pc fell down from 4ft height as i was moving it.
Mate can you suggest me what should i do now. I’ll have to buy a new laptop or desktop cuz there’s no point in changing the HDD or upgrading my current system because its an AMD Athlon Dual Core processor with 3gig RAM and 640GB HDD. Should i buy a new laptop or a desktop. I really need to buy one with i7 or maybe i5 spend not too much as i did with ASUS. I know desktop will be reliable and stable but i still need something powerful yet portable as i need to take carry my laptop everyday. I am thinking should i go for a good desktop and then buy a fairly cheap £300 laptop just for browsing, watching movies etc or should i buy an expensive laptop or a Mac Book or an iMac. Damn i am confused as hell. Any suggestions and advice form your side will be much appreciated mate.Basically i need a machine for music production and a bit of video editing or using after effects and photoshop.
Man, you have the worst luck. But as I say, it is 2012 and the customers do all the quality assurance. The only exception I can think of is Apple, and I am not sure how much of that is true and how much is the True Believers being too brainwashed to admit that anything could be wrong with their machine. The price is generally terrible, but if money is no objection, a brand new Mac may well be worth a try. You can run Windows on them too, if you pay a bit extra. Also, you still have the original operating system (Mountain Lion this year) so you have a bigger range of possible software to run than any other brand. Since you’re into music and video editing and that’s an old bastion of the Mac, that’s certainly one option.
For a machine similar to the N56V (but hopefully not exploding), MSI has the MSI GT70 0NC-029NE (at least that is what it is called up here in Scandinavia) which is particularly recommended for video editing, and with specs very similar to the Asus. That might be my next stop if my laptop blows up within 30 days, I guess. But for now, it is purring along beautifully. ^_^
My Luck is bad especially this year its really really bad.
I bought Nokia Lumia 900 on contract and after few days Windows made an announcement that they revealed the new Windows Phones 8 OS and in a few months are going to release it. They also officallyconfirmed that there will be no Win 8 upgrade for the current Lumia 900 users instead they’ll get an upgrade to 7.8 form 7.5 and only difference in 7.8 will be that its going to look like Win 8 phone OS and that’s it it will still be like Windows phone OS 7.5. I am afraid i will be stuck with the contract. Also my plans for buying the Macbook Pro from US got crushed and i won’t be able to buy it from UK because its more expensive if we compare the prices in US meaning the Macbook pro whi ch costs almost £2000 Including TAX costs £1275 including TAX. Damn it, I have put myself into a real mess this year Apart from just these small things along with the real life private problems.
FUCK… X(
Hi,
Just wondered where you managed to buy the laptop from? You mentioned the price in £, but I haven’t been able to find it anywhere in the UK?
Cheers
Hi
I bought it form PC World in Leicester.
Hi friends, got new asus N56V yesterday.It has beautiful look. Speakers are awesome but has some problems. It got hang 2 times in 1 day while transferring data. The big problem with the laptop has dull screen. I was happy to get matt screen but when I started viewing videos I feel darker rather than feeling natural. I got uncomfortable. Do you know any setting from the laptop through which I can get true color on the screen OR the laptop itself is having dark screen?
Anyone can answer.
The ASUS N56V has a program called Power4Gear Hybrid in the Start Menu that allows you to select a how much power to send to your screen for energy saving. If you turn it on to high-performance, it should be quite bright. If not, there is a problem with the screen.
Appreciate any help. I ran accross this blog while searching for help. I am seriously considering returning it but I have returned 3 HP’s that were defective, that I feel like a jerk doing that. Problem #1 Keyboard freezes since day 1. Problem #2 Keeping losing internet connection. I called tech support and they said the internet problem is causing the keyboard function to work poorly which is hogwash! Been working with Verizon who replaced my modem, sent tech people who say my signal is perfect and they can’t figure it out. Now I am wondering if the losing WiFI is the computer and not Verizon. I read to put the battery on max performance. Any any any help appreciated. Try to figure this out with tech support or return it? thanks thanks thanks
Hey Kathleen,
I can see how these symptoms may be too vague to return the machine, but perhaps you should have done so anyway.
It is not clear what you mean by “keyboard freezes”. If it only stops for a few seconds, it could be because there is something going on in the background that takes a lot of resources. I see this when playing The Sims 3, especially when it changes soundtracks while a lot is going on. But if the keyboard locks up completely and you have to reboot the computer, that’s reason for returning it. This should not happen on a new computer. Of course, it might be a problem with the software you are using, but if it happens in ordinary programs like Word or a web browser, you know it is the machine. There are millions of people using those programs, so if there was a problem with them they would notice fast!
WiFi is a terrible problem to diagnose. My best advice is to either try to connect to the network with another device, like a mobile phone, or else take the laptop with you to a place there is another WiFi and see if you can connect there. A friend, school or workplace, or even McDonalds. It is also possible to set up an Android phone to broadcast a small wireless hotspot, which can be used to test this.
Again, I’ve run this machine day and night here since May, and not had any glitches. So I urge anyone who reads this and has crashes or glitches in ordinary programs, to return their device as faulty if they can. It should not be necessary to have freezes and crashes on a laptop this powerful.
Hi Itandm,
I have the same problem with my internet always cutting out. I know it is not my modem because everyone in my family doesn’t have this problem while using their laptops. I have tried it at a higher quality wifi, such as my university. It still happens. Any suggestions?
Hello Kimberly,
I am afraid the WiFi access is not a problem you can fix by changing the settings. And since you can get on the Net at all, it is clearly not a user error. So if this error is easy to reproduce – as in, it fails often enough that you can demonstrate it – you should ask to have the machine repaired or replaced under warranty.
If this is not possible, I can think of no other alternative than adding a USB WiFi. They are small and moderately affordable, and your machine has enough USB ports that it should be possible. But it should not be necessary. The model is so new that it is bound to still be under warranty in most nations.
Just realized the goofy hypersensitive mouse pad deleted part of my post, the computer is a ASUS N56V purchased at Sams Club a month ago.
Hi Kathleen,
I just got my Asus N56v last week. I have the same issue with the wifi. It seemed to constantly cut out when I was on battery power. I changed the power setting so it the adapter does not shut off to save power and it seems to be better. The adapter does not seem to come turn back on if the computer goes to sleep. I just right click on the wireless icon in the system tray and use the diagnose tool which turns it back on.
Any tips on working with this touchpad? I can’t seem to type an email without the thing bouncing the cursor all over the place deleting entire paragraphs or inserting in the middle of something else and then trying to figure out where it inserted what I just typed.
Internet Explorer has crashed constantly when I first got it but seems to have stopped that nonsense. Not sure what caused it or why it stopped. Just glad it did. I need it for some of my real estate work where they use all sorts of plug ins that are only compatible with explorer.
The mousepad is frustrating. I recommend going into Control panel, hardware, mouse, Elan, and deactivate any gestures that you don’t actually use. It interprets almost any touch as some command or another. To be honest, I use an external mouse, but this may not be practical depending on where you use it. But at least it is worth taking a hard look at all those extra extra options.
Thanks for the tips. I did disable some of the gestures and have tried to retrain myself how to type without my palms touching the touch pad but have finally given. It was just to frustrating to be typing along only to realize the the cursor jumped to the middle of a previous paragraph or would select and delete parts of emails. Now I just disable the touch pad using the fn+f8 keys. Its a bit of a nuisance but easier than having to type and retype all the time.
Thanks for the tips. I did disable some of the gestures and have tried to retrain myself how to type without my palms touching the touch pad but have finally given. It was just to frustrating to be typing along only to realize the the cursor jumped to the middle of a previous paragraph or would select and delete parts of emails. Now I just disable the touch pad using the fn+f9 keys. Its a bit of a nuisance but easier than having to type and retype all the time.
Hi Ed,
I had the same problem with the mouse jumping all over the place. It is big nuisance, but too late to return my laptop. What I did was make the button on the very left corner (I can’t remember what it is called), and changed it to when I press it, the mouse pad deactivates. Then, when I am done typing, I press it again and then, I can use the mouse pad again. I wish ASUS thought more about reducing the size of the mouse pad.
Hey, i bought my Asus N56V a couple of days ago, and it seems to be a pretty good laptop, but i do have one problem. I can’t play any games on it because it’s lagging.
I tried playing diablo, and i had bad fps in fights, even on the lowest graphics.
I also played WoW, and i could get 40fps at the most, with lowest graphics and standing in some corner. As soon as i turned the graphics up alittle the fps dropped heavily. You got any ideas on why it’s like this?
The N56V comes with two graphics processing units, one built-in chipset on the main board for things like Powerpoint presentations and Tetris, so it doesn’t need to fire up the Nvidia GeForce GT 650M for trivial tasks, saving power. My guess would be that perhaps your machine uses the weaker power-saving chipset instead of the GeForce. This could either be because the machine is defective (Asus are not big on quality control), or you may need to install Nvidia drivers compatible with the games you are running.
The machine should definitely not behave like that normally. The video card is plenty enough for WoW, although it will struggle with Crysis and with Skyrim on high resolutions.
Hey, I bought the n56v recently, everything works perfectly. Except for the trackpad/touchpad, the problem is that both far sides don’t click/register and this really annoying if you. Is anyone else having the same issue or is it just me?
Because I already returned one and got another one back with the same problem. (It could just be bad-luck)
Thanks!
Well, it is not a feature – the touchpad here works the same across the whole area. I don’t see any settings in the control panel that would explain it either. It is really strange that you get a new machine with the same problem.
me too
I bought mine in China, since im working here and its cheaper. Since day one Windows Explorer, Internet Exporer and lots of randome apps crash, and its getting more and more serious. I cant stand it. I have tried most things I could search online. Doesnt help. Its appcrash here stackhash there…. Opera, OpenDocument, different games, MSN, Lingoes, pretty much every program.
I have updated all available drivers.
Please if someone has a solution share it here.
Hi there,
I bought this laptop a couple of months ago and had no problem at all until today.
The over sensitive track pad drives me crazy so i’ve mainly been using a wireless USB mouse. Today the batteries went flat so I used the track pad, for a couple hours it was fine then later on its gone all jerky. if i just touch the track pad in 1 position the cursor goes all over the screen without me moving.e It makes it impossible to navigate.
I’ve tried reinstalling the drivers and it hasn’t fixed it. Has anyone else had this problem?
Should I send it back? Also does anyone know if they’ll let me return it if I formatted and removed their recovery paritition? Im not sure if i read something about it voiding the warranty or maybe i misinterpreted it.
Thanks
Hmm, good question. I did a recovery few days back and the problem with the apps crashing seems to be gone. Wonder though if removing the recovery partition will void the guarantee. I guess its better to give them a call about it.
About the trackpad, I just configured it so that it is off whenever a mouse is used. Solved the issue. This can be set in Control panel, Mouse, Elan, And check “Disable when external pointing device plug in”
I brought my Asus N56v recently…and the temperature i get is 50-60 degree(without gaming) the keypad feel hot when I rest my palm on it, is this normal?
You should check whether the fan is working. If your laptop is hot to touch, the fan should be running. You may hear it if the room is quiet. You should feel the warm air coming out of the laptop on the left side, through the row of small rectangular holes.
If the fan is running but the computer is still hot, you may check whether some heavy processes are running. Press Ctr-Alt-Del and choose Task manager. At the bottom line of the window there should be a number for processor use. This should be very low if you are not running games or calculations. If the number is not very low, chose the tab for processes at the top and list processes by processor use.
I didt not run any games,my cpu usage at most 20% but my core temperature is around 50-55 degree.
I’m not sure …. i brought 2 weeks ago, but i only heard the fan is running ONCE(only than i know there is a fans there !), and is very loud but there is air coming out… BUT the next day after I shut down,there is neither the sound of fan nor air coming out from the left side of the laptop and the palm area is always hot .
so what the normal temperature you get without playing games etc…? what your suggestion ?
That doesnt quite sound right. Although it has a monster CPU but it shouldnt really get hot unless processing something demanding.
Maybe you should open the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), then go to Processes, click on CPU and check what applications are using the CPU.
It could also be problem with the fan I guess.
I signed up for the Windows 8 upgrade offer, should get an email from Microsoft soon, exciting exciting…. We’ll see how well 8 does on a N56v
I find it so hard to believe that you are accusing the Asus for causing all those crashes when it comes the biggest alteration of Windows for several years pre-installed. I have the machine but realised the very first day that Windows 8 is nowhere nearly ready besides the point that it is dedicated for mindless tasks on tablets and other touch screen devices. For serious work in multiple simultaneous applications Windows 8 is not only extremely annoying and requiring way more operations to complete the same tasks as W7, but I will actually claim that it is downright useless.
I downgraded to Windows 7 and the machine is brilliant! I have had absolutely no crashes or errors of any kind and I will recommend it to all of you instead of bashing this super high end product for Microsofts errors. Stop wasting your time beta-testing their biggest mistake ever for free and start getting some tasks done instead.
When that is said; the only thing that bothers me is the touch pad. I don’t know if it is because of the downgrade but it’s impossible to switch it of and pretty much also impossible to type on the keyboard while it is on. Any help would be greatly appreciated…
Hi Poul,
people have reported bugs and crashes since the machine first came out in spring, long before Windows 8. I guess reinstalling Windows could have fixed many of them, but I generally recommend returning the machine if it is buggy. As I say, the customers are doing the quality control these days, and not only on Asus.
If the Fn+F9 key does not switch off the pad (as it does when Windows 7 comes pre-installed), you may want to go into control panel, hardware, mouse, Elan, and stop it there. You can activate it again from the same place. If you don’t have another pointing unit, you may want to assign a key to switching it on and off, or leave the control panel window open to that spot in the background.
Poul, as far as I know none of the posts here were describing issues using Windows 8.
I did install Windows 8 Pro and was somewhat diappointed yes. It didnt have any issues though, I was mainly disappointed by the lack of personalization options such as Aero. Im using Windows 7 again and will do so until 8 is more stable and more tweaking options are available.
I just bought the N56VM from Amazon for $899 + tax. It’s very fast and I love the high resolution screen. There are some build quality issues:
1) The F10 key is stuck. You can still use it but it sounds and feels funny.
2) The top edge of the touch pad sticks up a bit above the chassis. Again, works fine but feels funny.
3) I can hear a faint rattle from the left speaker during audio playback. Sounds like something is just a bit loose and rattles a little whenever certain frequencies play.
I’m thinking about returning it for a new one. I’ve seen people post about this touchpad issue but nothing about the other problems, so I probably just got unlucky.
Seems so Chris,
The speaker and button issues sounds annoying. I would return it for a new one too.
I like my N56VM, but to be honest, I do miss my Acer Aspire 8920 18-inch laptop. Huge, but just so damn good.
The mini subwoofer on mine was has a hiss but not the laptop speakers themselves. I returned the first n56v that I ordered from Amazon (keyboard issue) but they replaced it with a refurbished one. Or at least I think it is.
Hi, I have just got my n56v with i7 2.4 quad core, 8gb 1600ddr3, 750gb 7200RPM, geforce 650m graphics and windows 8 pro. I have had no problems so far. Yeah, the touch pad is weird at first but if you have used a tablet it should be much more appreciated. I would even go as far as saying it has a brilliant usability potetial once I get used to all the gestures. I am already using the two finger drag for scrolling while browsing. Swiping in from the right brings up the charms from win8 etc etc. There is an asus update utility that installed many patches on my laptop. So far I have no cracks and pops, crashes, leds not working or anything like that. It is flawless… I have ordered an intel 240gb ssd to be put in, but I might void warranty by taking it apart… Ps it runs games quite decently, ran farcry 3 on medium detail very smooth so some can be made higher.
The two signs on the right side of my laptop where microphone and headset is plugged in is now worn out. Now i dont know which one is for the mic and which one is for the headset, have to guess and try everytime… Anyone with the same problem?
Most people probably only use the headphone (because they don’t know how awesome speech recognition is these days, especially Dragon NaturallySpeaking which is almost like magic.) The headphone connector is the one in front, which seems logical to me since most people approach their laptop from the front and then the most used connector is the first they get to. ^_^
Well now the other marks like USB, Monitor connect signs are also gone. Makes you wonder why such a crappy quality The laptop in general seems to be good quality tough. Could it be that the versions bought in China are like this?.
Hi,
I have an Asus N56V with a strange issue: when pressing some keys, I randomly also get the 3 key (as if the 3 key was pressed at the same time). This behaviour occurs especially when typing fast or when holding a key pressed for a few seconds.
If someone experienced this and had a solution, please let me know.
Thank you.
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