Gigabyte U2442N Review

Well, the notebook shipped with Windows 8, so it came with the Windows 8 bios/uefi loaded (F30AA), but Gigabyte support says I should be using the "Windows 7" bios (F00A). So I run their bios updater which shows a progress bar & says installing firmware. It completes and reboots the notebook. By the time the notebook comes back up and I go into the bios or Windows, it shows the bios version is F30AA, not F00A. I don't know if the board has dual bios (like many of the Gigabyte motherboards) and it's reverting to F30AA, or if the installer is failing and never actually flashing F00A.

I'd like to get the "correct" bios loaded so that I can then rule that out in troubleshooting the latest Intel HD4000 video driver (which crashes WDM and a host of other programs). Next up after that is figuring out if it's possible to trick the Nvidia installer into letting me load the 314.22 drivers (for the GT 730M) instead of remaining stuck on the older 311.07 drivers provided by Gigabyte. The funny thing is the Gigabyte supplied version of the control panel doesn't even have a "check for updates" option.

 

I'd take what Gigabyte support says with a grain of salt. I'm using the the latest W8 bios and it works just fine. I suggest you do the same. Instead of downloading drivers from Gigabytes site, download the latest HD4000 driver from Intel as well as the latest 7 series mobile driver from Nvidia. You should be all set at that point.

Use this guide to properly uninstall Nvidia drivers. http://www.overclock.net/t/1150443/how-to-remove-your-nvidia-gpu-drivers

You should also run ccleaner after every uninstall, then restart your system and finally install the new driver.

Sent from my Nexus 4

 

Ya, from all the research I've been doing. Nvidia just doesn't have any love for the GT 730M yet. I haven't found anyone able to install the drivers directly from Nvidia. In the inf file, there's only 1 supported 730M implementation.
With all the Nvidia stuff removed, the latest HD 4000 drivers don't seem to be causing any conflicts. Thanks for the help.

 

Hi all,

Nice too see an active community around this notebook

I need som help, i'm stuck in the BIOS boot loop.
I know the way of resolving it is to mes up with the "secure boot key" sitting.
But all i do is to change option, and reboot. Sometime it worked some time it don't.

Anyone got an actual step by step solution for setting the BIOS properly?

Thanks guys

Edit : Got the U2442N

 

You don't have to keep messing with that setting. Once it works don't touch it and you will boot fine.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

I dont mess with it without a reason.

I play a game call : Gotham city impostor, some time this game freez and i have to hard reset my computer.

Some time when i hard restart the computer get caught in the bios loop,

And i have to mess several time with the key boot secure sitting for starting on windows.

Also dude, where do you tune the graphic card for starting only in video games?
cant find that

Thanks

 

A hard boot reboot shouldn't effect the bios at all. You may have another issue. You tweak the GPU in the nvidia control panel (right click desktop and select it). Go to profiles and set the GPU on only for specific games.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

@ TheLawIX : how the MOD is going dude?

My GPU clock is stuck to 759MHZ

 

Hello all!

I'm also EXTREMELY interested in this laptop and would highly appreciate your comments on a few things, given that I've also looked into other products, such as the Asus Zenbook line:

1. What's your take on the fact that the Zenbooks only go up to 8 GB RAM? This makes me really lean towards the Gigabyte, together with the HD+SSD configuration.
2. Can anyone compare the overall build quality and display specs between the 13" / 15" Asus vs. U2442?

Just for context, I mainly do development and number crunching stuff with MATLAB. A good display isn't mandatory, but definitely a nice thing when you're staring at lines and lines of code for hours at a time. I guess the thing I value most in a computer is a snappy UI experience, which I feel the U2442 would deliver better. Oh, one last thing: I do most of my work on OSx86, but that's a topic in itself ;-)

Many thanks and have a great day!

 

The build quality is OK, certainly not like a Macbook Pro or Dell XPS. It works fine for programming, handles Eclipse easily. Also, why do you need more than even 4gb of ram? You honestly don't unless you do intense video/photo editing or 3d graphic design. OSx86? Ewwwwwwwww