13.3" Samsung NP900X3C with Ivy Bridge CPU

I've not had problems connecting my X4C to my Android phone (4.0 ICS) set up as a Wifi hotspot so maybe the bug is particular to the newer Android version.

A good reason to not upgrade my phone in the near future.

John

 

It's a strange bug. I have an Xperia TX and have had the issue in ICS and JB. On the intel forum, there were various other phones that had the problem with other intel cards as well. The driver version may also play a role, W8 driver may be ok.

 

I'm running a wifi hotspot on my Nexus 4 right now running 4.2.2 and typing this on my X3C connected to it. No problems.

 

The problem I had with Nexus 4 was that it killed my router from time to time, and reported the network out of range when clearly it WAS in range. Turns out it's a common 4.2.2 issue with some routers.

The problem went away when I changed my router to broadcast the SSID (which I prefer not to).

But again, I didn't have that tethering issue. Must depend on other factors too.

 

Maybe it's just Sony. Who knows. Just a heads up.

 

I'm (finally) about to try installing Ubuntu on my machine. I was looking at signatures in my UEFI BIOS secure boot section and noticed the same signature in both the db and dbx: EFI_CERT_SHA256_GUID. I find this both confusing and troublesome - if I have a signature in the dbx, does this mean my machine already has an exploit on it and therefore I shouldn't try installing Ubuntu in CSM (i.e. without secureboot) mode on it.

I find this UEFI business a colossal mess and poorly documented. I would really appreciate it if other owners of this model could check to see if they have the same CERT in their dbx, and if anyone could comment as to whether this is something to be concerned about.

Also, FWIW, I noticed in the Ubuntu 12.04.2 release notes, Ubuntu notes they have a workaround to the Samsung bricking issue: do a search at the following link for samsung.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/ChangeSummary/12.04.2

I'm still not sure if I'm willing to take the plunge in UEFI mode...

 

Hi,

I'm thinking about getting the i5 version of this for $900 (I'd rather go with an Ivy machine that's tried true and tested rather than an untested Haswell one). Are there any open issues with this machine that would put me off from buying it? My use case is note taking (I do like the keyboard, actually, I went into B&H and it was very comfortable to type on, in my opinion) and light games once in a while (stuff like Fez, FTL, Kerbal Space Program, Orcs Must Die, TF2 might be pushing it) at low settings. I certainly don't expect to be playing Crysis but it would be nice to play light games a bit when I'm away from my desktop. Is this a reasonable expectation?

With most laptops I've seen there are kind of 'open' problems - for example, the Dell XPS 14 has ongoing WiFi card issues both with Intel Advanced N and with Killer LAN, it just has bad range. My MSI GE60 had bad battery life and a flexy keyboard. Is there anything comparable with the Series 9 13.3"?

I'm thinking of getting this and then purchasing a Crucial M4 MSATA 256 gb SSD and putting that in and using the 128 gb MSATA one in an adapter for my desktop. How easy is it to access the innards? Would I be breaking the warranty if I did this? I don't have an external DVD drive, how would I reinstal Windows after this operation? Would I just clone the drive?

 

Gaming performance will be typical of the Intel HD4000 GPU. You can find more test results at notebookcheck. Haswell doesn't bring much of a boost to CPU speed although the graphics will run a bit faster.

The X3C also has its share of WiFi issues for two reasons: (a) The antennae are under a plastic cover at the back of the chassis between the hinges where the proximity of metal reduces signal strength compared to antennae mounted in a plastic display; (ii) it uses the same Intel 6235 WiFi card as almost every other Ivy Bridge notebook and which has had serious issues, particularly with connectivity. The good news is that since March this year Intel have issued driver updates that fix the problems for most people.

If you ask Samsung, they will tell you that opening the computer invalidates the warranty. However, there are no seals. There's more about the SSD swap in this thread. Provided you do no damage and restore the computer hardware to the supplied condition (so don't wipe the original SSD) before requesting warranty service then there will be no problems. If you get a Windows 8 version with the latest Samsung Recovery Solution 6 then you can make a bootable flash drive (32GB?) with everything you need to install Windows on the new SSD.

John

 

I have the i5 Ivy machine 1600x900. I have several hardware issues and the worse I cant fix is the monitor. the quality of color range is really bad for this price range. the screen might be IPS but forget to see the right colors.
the violet is almost not present and yellows are too high, all reds become lobster color and the violet becomes blue. I compared with other machine shown in a mall and they do all the same low quality problem. Samsung Assistance (in italy) said they cant replace/upgrade the screen. so watch out before buy this machine. for you to test in a shop or for other users that want to compare with other LED LCD screen they have in the house (TV, mobile phone, external monitors) here some IMAGE samples u can use. : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14100148/IMG test display.zip

 

Try my calibrated display profile. It's for my NP900X3B but it is the same panel.

If you have problems with Windows reverting to the old profile then read this thread.

John

 

Hi!

Got a problem. I'm using a 900X3C-a02. I am trying to do a clean install of windows 7. The dvd boots fine from my external usb-dvddrive. The windows setup starts.. but then suddenly it tells me that drivers are missing or not found and that I need to insert a disc containing those drivers.

So - which drivers are missing? And where do I get them?

I should say that I am not using the SSD that came with the computer, I am now using an intel 525 120GB. Is this the problem?

 

Have you plugged the optical drive into the USB 3.0 port (with the blue tab)? If so, try the USB 2.0 port.

John

 

Hi John, thanks I have installed ur color profile as default but there is not much difference. the violet colors are very light and become blue due the hi temperature of the screen and the yellow turns all the red into lobster color.
never seen a deep violet and bright red in this screen. seems impossible to make it due to the hardware inspite of any color calibration. (I tried other color calibration from other forum too) . it seems just a bad piece of hardware.
in top of that also the dimmer driver seems to be so weak that after every new system samsung recover it stops working just after installing common software like adobe reader.

 

try to compare with oother laptops (I have a sony which make great display) or any external monitor or even smart phones. use this samples images. u will see what I mean about reds and violets. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14100148/IMG test display.zip

 

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with the Ivy Bridge i5 silver version of this. I was watching a review (Liliputing) of a guy with the Sandy Bridge i5, and he said that he noticed some keyboard flex. I've felt the i7 'black' version and was very pleased with the lack of flex I felt. Is there any difference between colors/versions?

 

What brightness are you using? Colours wash out at full brightness.

There should not be any difference. The keyboard is bonded to the keyboard surround / palm rest.

John

 

at any brightness the color tone does not change. did you compared with the picture i linked? with other LCD display?

 

I've done a side-by-side comparison between those pictures on my X3B (same display as your X3C) and X4C and they look surprising similar.

What display color do you have selected on the Display tab in (Easy) Settings?

John

 

My suggestion and request was to do a side-by-side comparison with OTHER monitor (external) or phones or othe laptop not of the same series of course, just to show you that any other brand or even samsung external monitor display color in a proper way except this series 9 (13 or 15 with 1600x900). Personally I used a Acer external monitor a Sony laptop, and a sony smartphone and the image is good in all screen except in the series 9.

2. I dont get it: where can I find the Display tab in (Easy) Settings? (in the graphic properties or somewhere else? thanks

 

John, you've hung out around here for long enough to know - A few months ago someone brought up in a comparison review that the X3D version of the Series 9 13" was of general lower build quality: rough edges (literally) and no magnets in the screen. To what extent are those claims true?
This is the exact one I'm looking at getting:
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Series 9 Intel Core i5 4GB 128GB SSD 13.3" Premium Ultrabook Silver (NP900X3D-A04US)
Reading the reviews on it, someone does indeed complain about the laptop not closing completely.

I'd hate to pay $900 for a premium ultrabook and end up with something that isn't. I'd probably end up getting an Asus UX31A instead.

 

I've worked with an X3D-A01 that was pretty much the same build quality as my X3B, good. If there's a problem then return it, but I think you have a better chance with samsung than asus in term of build quality.

 

Your Easy Settings should have a Display Color tab where you can choose between various color profiles (including No Effect). There is also a checkbox to enable auto switching of color profile when you play video. I keep that disabled.

If your Easy Settings doesn't have that tab, it's installation is broken or corrupted. Uninstall and re-install it (reboot after each). Get the latest Easy Settings v2.x as described in this post. Also, make sure to redo tweaks to your power profiles any time you re-install Easy Settings (or Settings for Win8 users).

If colors are as bad as you describe, I think it is possible that your display has a defect, in which case you can tweak profiles and settings forever, and will it never be good. In that case you should contact Samsung for a repair or a replacement.

 

Thanks for answer. Ok I still wait for your comparison with other external monitor or other brand laptops.

for the easy setting you meant Samsung easy setting I didnt understand before cause I thought you meant the intel graphic properties.
Of course I spent days try to change and /or disable all the settinig etc... but it is just the bad quality of the screen.
to be sure it wasnt just mine I went to the shop with the image sample i posted before (here again: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14100148/IMG test display.zip )
but even in the mall the 2 series 9 exposed shown the same color fidelity prblem. I had a ASUS at its left and a sony pro 13 at its right . Even the clerk of the shop was shoked to see a bad quality color fidelity. it was clear for the red and violet color...while the yellow-green-blue was quite ok.
no matter software, calibration setting changing the display just have a too high temperature 7K up that make a distortion in red-violet colors.
I contacted the assistance in italy where i live now and they say the can upgrade the screen and that i have to keep it like this.
I have to go to assistance anyway again because I have some problem in the VGA signal out anyway: sometime the image get a flash/buzz.
at the end it is very irritating to see movies and use photoshop in this laptop....and in europe it cost much more then 900USD here it goes up to 1200 euro approx 1450usd for such a bad quality. shame on samsung.

 

Split some water on my laptop and had a malfunctioning keyboard. Bought a top assembly and replaced the whole thing in under 30 minutes with the help of some people here! If anyone needs help with the whole process, I would be happy to help. Just send a PM!

 

Unfortunately, Newegg has a no returns policy. I have to buy from them because I actually did manage to return my GE60-2OE when I found out it was 1/2 lb more than it should have weighed but all I could get was store credit.

What worried me so about this is that the issue doesn't seem to have been fixed with a revision; a newegg reviewer about two weeks ago said "laptop cover does not stay shut when you carry the laptop on your side with the hinge side down. the lid will open up abt 1/4 to 1/2 an inch.". The video to which I am referring is this:

Samsung Series 9 - model comparisons - YouTube

Also, how bad is the Sandisk U100?

 

I don't recall the problem of the lid not staying closed being previously raised in this forum. For most people, getting the display open the first 1/2 inch is a two-handed job.

The U100 is adequate for most users. It's weakness is a very small write cache with the result that if you fill your 4GB of RAM and then load another program the computer appears to freeze (typically for 5 to 10 seconds) while some of the RAM is dumped to the SSD. My review of the Crucial m4 mSATA SSD gives comparisons with the U100. Some of us have swapped the U100 for a bigger SSD which also eliminates this problem as discussed in this thread.

John

 

Are you referring to:
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Series 9 Intel Core i5 4GB 128GB SSD 13.3" Premium Ultrabook Silver (NP900X3D-A04US)

I've never had a problem returning to newegg. It looks like it has the standard 30-day return policy. And you get a free tablet, can't really beat that for $900. Perhaps there were some defective units that got out, I recall hearing about this once before. But my brother's A01 didn't seem to have the issue. If you might push the laptop a little and need some more space, I would get the crucial now so you can just keep the sandisk for warranty purposes.

This item is covered by Newegg.com's Standard Return Policy.

Return for refund within: 30 days
Return for replacement within: 30 days
Restocking Fee: Yes

 

Does anyone know the difference between the Samsung Recovery Solution accessed through F4 during boot, and the recovery DVD that came with the PC? What's the purpose of the DVD?

Will both basically reset Windows (and does that mean I can safely delete the recovery partition and just use the DVD in the future)?

 

The Recovery DVD is really just a plain Windows 7 OEM disc. There are no Samsung drivers on it nor any Recovery software. It's what you would use for a clean install.

 

I see, so it's actually an "extra virgin" recovery option Presumably one can just install the Samsung software downloader and use it to install all the relevant things?

 

Yep. If you want to do a clean install (with minimum Samsung bloat) just use that DVD and the Win7 install guide in this post. You need to download WiFi drivers and SW Update first -- it's covered in that install guide.

If you don't have a DVD drive, can can download a Win7 ISO (legally) from Digital River and flash onto a USB stick using Microsoft's DVD/USB tool which can be downloaded here.

That Win7 install guide contains other guides on the opening post for installing from USB. DON'T follow those, they're only for 2012 Series 7 owners who have other challenges when installing from USB.

 

Does anyone know how well the battery is supposed to hold up with the lid closed? It seems that it drained lost about 4-5% of the remaining battery for me overnight with the computer unplugged from power and the lid closed. Is this expected?

 

Up to 1% per hour in sleep mode is plausible. If you are running Windows 7 then see the Intel Rapid Start Technology thread. Set the hibernation timer for something shorter than the default (which, IIRC, is 720 minutes = 12 hours). If you are running Windows 8 then adjust the timeout for transition from sleep to hibernation or simply tell the computer to hibernate when you go to bed.

John

 

I was under the impression that Intel Rapid Start would put it into hibernation and basically prevent the battery from being drained as quickly as this?

Maybe this should be discussed on that thread you linked to instead, though. I must admit that I'm having problems wrapping my head around what all these things are supposed to be doing.

 

So after 4 attempts to fix my trackpad, Samsung has opted to replace my NP900X3C-A01US with a NP900X3F-K01US.

Is it possible/easy to install Windows 7 on this machine? I really don't want windows 8 on it.

 

Intel Rapid Start (Windows 7) will transition from sleep to hibernation after a time delay which you can set through the IRST control panel. As I noted above, I recall the default timeout is 12 hours. If you have got Windows 8 then it uses Windows' sleep.

I was thinking along the same lines when I got my X4C with Windows 8 but I took the easy route and paid $5 for Start8. Give it a try - you can run it as a trial for a month.

John

 

Since you are the first X3F US owner on the forum can you please tell us which WiFi module your machine has and if the device has a black framing all around including port covers.

Please use the X3E/X3F thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...book-9-13-3-ivy-bridge-np900x3e-np900x3f.html

 

Can someone tell me how the

SAMSUNG Series 9 Intel Core i5 4GB 128GB SSD 13.3" Premium Ultrabook Silver (NP900X3D-A04US)

compares to other iterations of the Samsung 9 series? Is $900 a good deal for this Macbook Air competitor? Any other options I should consider before pulling the trigger? It has a 128 SSD drive, which is a little on the small side, not sure if you guys have suggestions for upgrading it to something like a 256 SSD drive.

 

Oh, I see. Any idea why I can't seem to start the Intel Rapid Start Technology Manager? I get the Windows (7) admin prompt when clicking it in the Start menu, but then nothing else happens when I allow it. That is, I run the IRST Manager from the Start menu on Windows 7, I confirm that I want to allow it to make changes, but nothing appears. "RapidStartConfig.exe" is running in the background, though.

Is the Control Panel you are referring to something different from the IRST Manager?

 

Make sure you have installed IRST V2. If it isn't offered by SW Update then search the Intel website. Getting IRST V1 working properly was a challenge as described in this thread.

John

 

It's a shame that Samsung ships outdated software which stays outdated even within their update manager...

 

the SAMSUNG Series 9 Intel Core i5 4GB 128GB SSD 13.3" Premium Ultrabook Silver (NP900X3D-A04US)
display is far to be compared to a Macbook Air or even a IPS sony or Asus. the display is one of the worse in this high-end category.
If I knew it before I was not buying it.
mind also that the NP900X3 D got a 2011 CPU and GPU is the downgrad of the NP900X3 C.
how triky is from Samsung to realease a newer laptop with a 2 years old CPU and GPU .

 

Would someone please tell me what battery life is like when only using a power saving mode and browsing the internet/word processing? Thanks.

 

I think you have some misinformation here. The X3D-A01 was indeed released with a low-powered sandy-bridge i5 with uefi support for W8. The X3D-A04 has ivy bridge and should be very similar to the X3C performance-wise. They all have the 900p matte panel that is one of the best on the market. Unfortunately most, if not all, are equipped with a lackluster sandisk 128GB SSD. Not a bad plan to pick up a 256GB msata (Crucial for instance) and upgrade yourself/clean install. The difference between the X3C and X3D is the chasis/color. Some have reported the hinge on the X3D is a little looser. $900 (at newegg last I saw) seems a very reasonable price for the X3D-A04. Battery life will be slightly better with ivy bridge, depending on use/display brightness as much as 7 hours.

 

yeah sorry I apologize, I did not know that the A04 was finally the same intel Core™ i5-3317U (2.8GHz) and GP$ 4000 same as the X3C. good to know.
but still, the monitor/display 900p is totally bad in my experience as I already posted time ago. So then I will invite members in this forum to buy this samsung then and compare it with Sony laptop panels or Asus or any external monitor or smartphone u have in the house with this pictures here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14100148/IMG test display.zip
Funny, nobody in this forum checked or compared with other brands panel and give a feedback yet.
the Violet colors and the reds are not well displayed in this panel and watching a movie is really a bad experience.

 

What is the latest version of BIOS on NP900X3C?

I only have Ubuntu on this machine and I am not able to check for BIOS updates anymore.

 

The X3D is the 15" model is with a relatively poor TN display.

The X3C is the 13" model with a very good IPS display.

You're in the wrong forum.

 

I think you meant the X4D being the 15" model with TN panel (not X3D).

And I think Anjobaba DID mean to post in this thread about the X3D, which he has frequently stated he finds has a poor display -- even though others love that display and find it to be one of the best. Just different opinions, that's all.

 

Oh, my bad. Indeed, I don't understand why anyone would complain about this display. it's excellent. The color range isn't great but that's nothing compared to downsides of the equivalent Mac Book Air display available at the time (lower res, worse viewing angles, larger bezel).

 

Yeah, I was blown away when I saw it at Best Buy, though I don't own the model myself. Color rendering and accuracy was indeed the issue which Anjobaba had posted about. It all depends on each users needs.