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I'm on my second Asus Ultrabook UX301LA-DH71T because I can't get a stable Windows 8.1 installation. I want to love this laptop - there's nothing quite equivalent in the market right now. But I need to not have to be restoring to a working state.

The common activity that leads to the symptoms seems to be that when I open the laptop after it's been asleep, a number of aspects of the installation are changed or corrupt / broken. It's possible that another precipitating factor (besides being put to sleep) is unplugging the A/C adapter while it's asleep, but that's not as clear at this point.

The thing that seems to always change when coming out of sleep is the DPI magnification (not the resolution). All windows and fonts are significantly smaller, across the board, when I come out of sleep. A reboot seems to fix that. Obviously, that shouldn't happen nor should a reboot be required.

The really bad problems are the aspects of Windows 8.1 that seem corrupted. The effect isn't always the same, but it's some combination of: Windows Update doesn't work (checking for updates hangs, as one example); Windows Store doesn't work, or App Updates doesn't (hangs); the group policy client pops up a tool tray window (gpsvc isn't running - and no, all the articles and videos on how to fix that don't work - the system already has the requisite registry settings, etc.); other services have errors in the event viewer (BITS is a common one, ShellHWDetection, Multimedia Class Scheduler - dumps hundreds of event log entries in the space of just a few seconds, some Distributed COM errors); etc.

I have an Acronis TrueImage backup of just after 8.1 is fully installed, all updates applied, and some other basic settings configured. No 3rd party software installed. My installation was extremely methodical, including installing all Asus driver updates for 8.1, etc. I can restore to that backup, and things behave perfectly well - until I close the lid and let it sleep. If it matters, a lot of informational event log entries are generated while it's asleep - more than when it's open/awake but sitting doing nothing.

I guess two related questions, then:

1) Is this a known issue with Windows 8.1 generally? If so, is there something that can be done to actually fix it so that it never recurs (versus work around it somehow)? There don't seem to be enough of this particular laptop model in the wild to find if this is a systemic issue with it, though it happening on the second one I've received doesn't bode well.

2) Failing that, any general guidelines on making the decision to just give up on this model? As I said, I love the unit. But for almost $2K, it really ought to work.

Thanks much, and sorry for the lengthy post.

Donnie

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  • I can tell you the issue isn't Windows 8.1 the issues you describe sound connected to the hardware. The Windows Update and Windows Store not working sounds like an issue with the WiFi
    – Ramhound
    Feb 7, 2014 at 18:19
  • Wifi is definitely not the problem (at least at a general level). I can do all normal internet (and local network) activities with no issue, even while Update and Store are hung. Feb 7, 2014 at 18:55
  • I've tried to be extremely methodical in my troubleshooting, given how many times I've seen the problem. The first thing I will do on a boot (or wake from sleep) is check Windows Update and Windows Store, as well as the event viewer. They were working before it went to sleep. Feb 7, 2014 at 18:55

2 Answers 2

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I also have a UX301LA, love it, but had the same problem. Untill I discovered this two reports:

http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=UX301LA&p=3&s=574

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht073994?tabName=Solutions

Just try to upgrade your BIOS to version 209 for UX301LA and pay attention to not make mass with the UX301LAA. Get the driver at Asus site I quoted above.

This issue with sleep mode is happening with many ultrabooks from different assemblers (Lenovo, Asus, Dell). It seems to be a BIOS failure.

Also, don't forget to tell us if your problem was solved.

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So to correct my mistake, install the BIOS 209 (UX301LAA) - 2.28MB. To do it, you must download Windows BIOS Flash Utility to execute BIOS 209's binary file.

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    Rather than post this as a new answer you should edit into your original answer.
    – PeterJ
    Oct 8, 2014 at 2:33

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