I’ve had this laptop for a few years now, and it’s still quite the nice machine. About a month ago, I decided to do the distribution upgrade and upgrade it from 16.04 to 18.04. It worked, mostly, sort of. I spent a bit of time having to tweak things and after a few weeks, the machine was once again stable enough to use as a reliable workstation.
Continue ReadingUPDATE - Dec 1, 2018 - I’ve Finally installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on the Asus ZenBook UX501VW
First off, let me first say, what a nightmare this was. After the relative ease of installing Ubuntu 15.10 on the ZenBook I was more than a bit disappointed with how difficult it was installing Ubuntu 16.04.
Continue ReadingAfter writing about installing Ubuntu 14.04 on the ZenBook Pro I used it for about a month or so, but was not really happy with it. Nothing seemed quite right. Fonts were off, cursor sizes were off, applications didn’t look quite like they were supposed to, accelerated graphics didn’t quite work, etc. Don’t get me wrong, everything worked, but not as smoothly as I would have liked. So, I tried a few different things.
Continue ReadingAfter I purchased the new ASUS ZenBook, I went looking for another power supply for it, one to keep plugged in at my desk at the office, and another one for my backpack. One would think that would be easy to do, right? Not so.
ASUS decided to do something very odd, and rather stupid. They changed the size of the power tip for the power supply, but kept the same part number. I went through two different orders of the PA-1121-26 power supply and both of them had the wrong size tip. There is nowhere on the ASUS website to order a compatible one, and purchasing one from anywhere else will likely get you the wrong size tip.
Continue ReadingUpdate 2016-04-25, this post is obsolete. I now have information on installing Ubuntu 16.04 at https://marclewis.com/2016/04/25/installing-ubuntu-16-04-lts-on-asus-zenbook-ux501vw/
After receiving my new ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501VW, the first thing I did was prepare it to dual boot between Windows 10 and Ubuntu. I’m not a fan of Windows at all, but I do understand that sometimes its required, so I need to dual boot.
Continue ReadingAfter three years of using my trusty Vaio laptop, the time had finally come to replace it. The Vaio has been a great laptop for me, but it was starting to show its age. When I bought the Vaio, its intended use was to be a desktop replacement when I wasn’t at the office. Its large 17.3" screen suited that purpose well. At the time I bought it we weren’t living in a place where we could setup a desktop computer at home, there simply wasn’t enough space. We’ve since moved and have the space for a desktop, so my laptop requirements have changed a bit.
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