13.3" Samsung NP900X3C with Ivy Bridge CPU

Yes, I had the very same sluggishness. It has not happened since I swapped out the u100 for a Crucial M4.

 

Thanks ed, I guess I'll observe it for a while to see how often it happens, by waiting I can not only test my tolerance for it, but also let SSD prices fall some more.

Another observation: when i skyped on the series 9, the picture of me was very dark. I later used another laptop and did not have this problem. The room light then was not great, but compared to the HP and my prior Lenovo, it seems the video camera is poor in low light. A friend has a Series 7 and said he's got the same issue

 

Thanks John and Don. I was using a Prolink one b/c it was the smallest i could find. I've now whipped out a Logitech one I used to use, but my Lenovo kept losing it, to test to see if after sleeping would it react OK or become sluggish like the Prolink. It's still too big for travel, but it's more convenient if when I'm plugged in at home I can use it, saves me plugging in a wire. Let let you know if change of brand helps

 

FYI

This sleeve fits my np900x3b like a glove and won't break the bank.

Amazon.com: CaseCrown Neoprene Sleeve (Black/Blue) for Acer 11.6 Inch Netbook: Computers & Accessories

 

hello, short question: with which series 9 notebook did chargers like this ship:
40W Travel AC Power Adapter for Samsung Series 9:NP900X1A-A01,NP900X1AA01US | eBay

I´d like to buy a charger like this for my series 9 900x3c. Just for the "on-the-road" situations. I assume it will fit,too? Which was the original item-number? Thank you for your help.

 

Thank you for the info, I was getting rather angry with this feature. lol Once I get the 256gb crucial drive installed this will be an amazing machine, only thing I'd like more would be having 8gb of memory. Oh well, it's still the nicest machine I've ever had. My highest requirement is it being silent and I haven't heard this make a sound.

Any chance of being able to upgrade this to an i7? I'm a tweeker and love to upgrade things. lol

 

My PSU has SEC P/N: AD-4019SL; Model PA-1400-24; Product ID: PA3NS40; Code: BA44-00272A. However, only 3 things matter when looking at compatible power supplies: The power rating (40W or more); the voltage (19V); and the small power tip (I think the "SL" at the end of the Samsung part number indicates the thin tip - netbooks use a thicker plug.

No chance! The CPU is soldered (a standard feature in thin notebooks where the CPU socket would add to the thickness).

John

 

Original part on mine was PA1400-24, it was the right angle plug. Whether this replacement brand will fit I can't say, though visually looks the right size

 

PA1400-24 covers both straight and right-angle plugs. My example of the latter has "Rev 1.5" on the PSU while Rev 1.2 has a straight plug.

John

 

Thank you for your quick and kind help. I was thinking about having such a small PSU like the one I´ve posted (looks like the apple one or the one which ships with the zenbook prime devices).
Aren´t they available anywhere anymore? Or wouldn´t they fit the new Series 9?
I´m from Germany and need the european plug by the way....

Edit: I found out, the Samsung 900x3a had such PSUs.

 

Hay all,
I have been following this thread for a couple of days as I just bought the Samsung Series 9 13.3" with Ivy Bridge. Should be coming tomorrow. I have noticed discussion on this topic but I have lost the page and there are now over 100 pages to check. When I get my Samsung I would like to move the Backup Partition to a USB 500GB External Hard Drive and remove it from the 128GB SSD on the computer. I am not exactly sure on the steps. Is it possible to make an image of a partition and move it to an external drive like I am suggesting and then expand the usable memory in the SSD. I would like to avoid re-installing Windows. As I said I believe others were trying to do the exact same thing as me. I however just made this account and could not send private messages to people. Sorry if this question has already been answered, you could just direct me to the page.

Also does the Samsung Backup manager allow you to save the drivers to a Hard Drive or do you have to make a CD?

 

Why does it take so long to toggle the wireless on this laptop? Pressing Fn + F12 will leave a "please wait" on the screen for literally longer than it takes to boot the computer.

 

Sorry for delayed reply. As far as I can tell, the part numbers are the same between both the straight and right-angle models:

Model PA-1400-24
SEC P/N: AD-4019SL
Product ID: AA-PA3NS40
Code: BA44-00272A

I believe it is the Rev# that distinguishes them. For the two I have:
Rev 1.4 - Straight
Rev 1.5 - Right-Angle

Hope that helps!

 

Anyone having problems booting off external cd/dvd rom? I've got the usb drive set to first boot, neither the Samsung recovery disk or my Windows 7 disk will boot it goes straight into windows. Both disks boot fine off my pc at work.

Edit: Nvm, found the problem. Had to turn fast boot off.

 

No dice. HDMI output works great, the Samsung mini VGA from Buy.com didn't even register on the higher resolutions (e.g 2560 or 2600), direct, dual link conversion or otherwise.

 

1. Acronis True Image will allow imaging of the whole SSD or individual partitions onto another HDD. I presume that other backup softwares will also do this. I would suggest you image the whole SSD so you can restore it to the as-supplied partition. 2. Samsung Recovery solution will allow you to backup onto devices other than a optical drive.

Good question which Samsung can best answer. However, turning off WiFi involves (a) disconnection of any network connections then (b) disabling the device. I suspect (a) consumes the time if the computer goes through the process even if there is no active connection.

I would add that pressing F10 at the BIOS screen will bring up a list of boot devices but you may still need to disable fast boot (which you can also do in Easy Settings).

John

 

So I just recieved my New Samsung Series 9. The Trackpad is loose and wiggles around. I could put my nail under it and lift up to see hardware underneath. So I have to ship it away to get it fixed. Unless you guys have fix to this problem. I do not mind taking the back off. I do not know exactly what to do with the trackpad. Help me out if you can.

 

After too long of a wait for my laptop (scheduling pickup from Point Roberts was tricky), it's here. And it's Sandisk. I purchased from Amazon.

All else seems fine, and I may not notice any difficulty as I'm coming from an HDD. I figure I'll try it out for a while and swap it out if it gets annoyingly slow. Otherwise, I'll wait a year or two when a 512 SSD comes out and reconsider swapping then.

Two more hours at work... then I get to play with my pretty.

 

Two days I read all the posts. His 900x3c bought a week ago. He was on the show. This is the version NP900X3C-A02PL want MZMPC128HBFU Samsung SSD, and he has just convinced me to himself - his fast action

 

I've never had an SSD before. Do you think I really need to swap the Sandisk out knowing this fact?

Currently using a 1TB Samsung S3 in my main PC (7200RPM) and get these figures below.



512k write is lower on the SSD but that's it. Will I still notice a big improvement using this SSD?

 

I admit I didn't check the speeds as you did, but I have a few Samsung HDDs on my desktops. On 2 I then changed to SSD and saw huge improvement in bootup speeds and program loading. So putting aside the issues w U100, I think you'll still see big improvements. On the U100, you'll see a few pages back that one problem I've encountered--occasional lags in inputs--is due to the U100. Over the last several days of use I have not encountered that same problem, so I suspect for me it was linked also to the I/O requirements of the bluetooth mouse I was using. So yes there are faster SSDs out there, but for general use you'll likely be quite happy with this. Again, the U100 has problems but you can probably buy it first and then decide whether to swap out, as the odds are high you'll be OK with performance.

Updating all on the bluetooth mouse, I have been using my old Logitech bluetooth for several days, and have not had the lag problems after laptop sleeps. So again it seems my prior brand had some issues when connecting w the Samsung (though it worked perfectly w my prior Lenovo)

 

See how you get on. The Sandisk U100 works fine unless you get a lot of queued disk input / output. In my case this would happen when I would start yet another program which was trying to read data at the same time as Windows was trying to dump RAM contents into the swap file on the SSD. The other reason for upgrading the SSD is to give more space.

John

 

[disregard]

 

sda1 - 104.9 MB ntfs - Boot partition
sda2 - 100 GB ntfs - Main Windows partition
sda3 - 4.3 GB unknown - Hibernation partition
sda4 - 23.3 GB ntfs - Recovery partition

I've marked them above. I would recommend starting with an image of the whole SSD if you have the resources. Otherwise make a backup of the drivers and software using Samsung Recovery Solution and then delete the recovery partition. I might be imagining it but I thought there was a limit of 4 primary partitions (or is Linux happy in an extended partition?). Also temporarily disable the Intel Rapid Start and delete the hibernation partition after which you could expand the Windows partition to use the full space, re-enable IRST to recreate the hibernation partition and then let Linux look for some space (all a lot easier using a partition manager program). Windows may struggle with 40GB in the long term unless you have aggressive housekeeping and stop it hoarding any updates. I would suggest 50GB.

John

 

Bought my NP900X3C-A01US off amazon.com a few days ago and am absolutely blown away by performance, battery life and build quality!

One of the first things I did is uninstall the Norton software, but now Easy Software Manager keeps reminding me to re-install this "essential" software. Has anyone been able to find a way to get rid of this reminder without actually having to install Norton? Is there a feature (similar to Windows Updates) which allows you to ignore updates and not have them appear again?

Many thanks in advance for any hints!

 

I agree that Norton is the first thing to be kicked off. Select Customize for the notification area icons and then set the properties of the Easy Software Manager Agent to Hide Icon and Notifications. Nothing will then pop up but every few days you can still click on the icon to run ESM and fine out if there are any updates. [Supplementary note: You may want to run Samsung's BIOS updater program to see if there is a BIOS update.]

John

 

the results of my hard disk ( samsung MZMPC128HBFU ) - what do you think?

 

It's overall in the same range as the Crucial M4 for which my results are here. (Right hand side - on the left is the Sandisk U100).

John

 

I would like to make additional partitions d: Archives and yet preserve the functionality or the recovery partition and hibernate - not quite know how for it to take longer because there are 4 logical partitions - afraid to move the partition to hibernate not to damage anything

 

I just got this x3c from mfst store and really like it. I am looking for some kind of skin protector / decal / case to protect it from potential scratch, any recommendations? (I have seen quite a few for the MBA but not for SS9). Thanks!!

 

Any real reason to keep the Easy Settings Manager?
Trying to go lean, even wondering if all the Intel stuff is truly needed
or wanted?

 

I don't use any of the Intel stuff with the exception of the WIFI driver. Easy Settings is actually a pretty good utility to have.

 

So you do not use Intel Rapid Start?

 

I uninstalled Norton right away also and was never bothered by reminders w/o doing the adjustment John mentioned. I immediately installed a free AV software, maybe you did not and so that's why you got the reminders?

 

Nope. I don't use hibernation, ever.

 

I find easy settings fairly useful, I would keep intel rapid storage as well. My reinstall+hibernation partition came in at ~20GB including MS Office, Power DVD9 and assorted smaller apps. Running lean and mean.

 

WOuld I be able to replace the 3317u with a Core i7-3667U? Both have the same TDP.

 

What true value is in intel rapid storage?

Soldered CPU, not socketed.
No user replacement.

 

Well, that sucks. Thanks for the info.

 

Has anyone been noticing a low pop/click sound from their speakers with their X3C? I've starting noticing about a week into using it. It occurs whenever I play a video or some flash media loads on a website. I don't believe it is a volume issue because I can mute the volume and hear it therefore thinking it could be a hardware problem instead. It's a really low/soft pop sound coming from the speakers but I can recall at times that it can get a little louder. The sound is also really similar to a static pop like sound. I feel that it occurs when something triggers or powers the speakers ON.

Just posting my issue here as I have a few days left to exchange the laptop and want to see if anyone else ever noticed anything similar. I doubt this is a major issue across all owners and think I may just have a defect component in the ultrabook. I feel it could be a possible grounding issue or something??

 

I can't really say I've noticed anything like this. You may have some form of defect with it and if you've only had it a short period it might be worth returning it and grabbing a new one before it becomes an issue in the long run.

 

Rapid Storage is basically Intel's storage driver. We might be getting confused with Rapid Start (usually given the same IRST abbreviation). I find Rapid Start with its reliable sleep and fast resume from hibernation (when set up properly) to be extremely useful. Never before have I been willing to shut the lid and put the computer into a bag confident tht it won't wake up and cook itself.

AFAIK all thin notebooks use soldered CPUs. A socket would make them thicker.

I don't think it is grounding or similar. I would first re-install the Realtek audio driver.

John

 

I referred to both - earlier on to the Rapid Start driver, and then now to the Rapid Storage driver. Sorry for any confusion I caused.

My remaining questions are:

1.) I thought that the Rapid Storage driver was only recommended for systems running RAID's, but Samsung includes it, and not sure the value?

2.) The Rapid Start driver helps with sleep also? So, it is not just for
proper setup for hibernation?

 

That is partially correct. The Intel Rapid Storage drivers have some work that helps with hot plugging SATA devices. This happens most on systems like the ThinkPad where you might be hot plugging on the eSATA port, or via an UltraBay device.

For the Samsung Series 9, there is no benefit to using them. The Microsoft inbox AHCI drivers are just as fast, support TRIM, etc.

 

Thanks!

Also, you suggested earlier that you don't use the Rapid Start drivers since you never use hibernate. What I have read agrees with this, basically suggesting that Rapid Start drivers are for faster, more efficient hibernate.
John seemed to suggest that they have value for simple sleep functions.

So now I am confused.

 

Rapid Start covers both sleep and hibernation and the transition from sleep to hibernation without the computer needing to wake up to write the hibernation file. It does this by having the hibernation partition directly mapped to the RAM and updating the partition in the background. A further trick is that on resume it first loads whatever was active when the computer was last used, which drastically shortens the resume time). The Rapid Start control panel (if you have got it working) allows you to set the time delay to hibernation between 0 and whatever is the upper limit set in the BIOS. I was always cautious about using Windows sleep because there were too many instances of computers waking up when they shouldn't. This new approach effectively by-passes Windows. I say "new" but it isn't: My Toshiba T4400 which I bought in 1992 had BIOS level hibernation support.

John

 

Thanks again.
So, your take is that it is worth using if it is setup and properly working.

Also sorry that I didn't realize there was a large thread on this utility alone right here in this Samsung subforum.

 

I consider it worthwhile for my usage. Your mileage may vary. However, getting it set up properly can sometimes be a hassle.

The sticky index at the top of the forum is meant to help with finding useful threads (but maybe I'm the only person that uses it).

John

 

I just received my X3C to replace my X3B and I just thought I would share my thoughts.

I was unlucky and received the U100 drive instead of the Samsung. Before I loaded any programs or data on the X3c I did a boot up race between the two laptops. The X3B (running on batteries) booted up faster than the X3C running on AC power by about 1.5-2 seconds.

I just ordered a replacement drive for the U100 and I can't wait for it to arrive. Other than that I don't really notice anything different between the two yet other than above the keyboard where the X3c says something about it being "New Samsung series 9" or something like that stating that it is the new model. Almost like they were mocking Apple with the New iPad. I'm not a big fan of the new part but it doesn't really matter to me.

I'll play with it more tonight and let you know if I see any other differences.

 

Yes, I noticed this as well and found the cause!

It has to do with Realtek power management of your speakers, i.e. they turn off after a while and when they are triggered again, it makes a clicking sound.

You can change the settings for this by going to Control Panel, Realtek HD Audio Manager, and then clicking the little battery icon next to the OK button in the bottom right corner.

Found it very annoying too, but turning power management off got rid of the clicking sound and did not seem to affect battery life too much.

Hope this helps!