13.3" Samsung NP900X3C with Ivy Bridge CPU

My suspicions was that it was something about that.There is nothing nuclear in WiFi it should work with simple things like antenna and driver.

 

Hey,

I have a NP900X3C-A01PT but since I updated to Windows 8.1 SW Update stopped working. Now I only get a page to search for the model of my laptop and then I can download drivers for Windows 7 or 8 but there are no drivers available for 8.1. We will never get drivers for this model and get the SW Update to work as previously? I kind of liked that it always updated my drivers and software...

 

Samsung do not officially support Windows 8.1 on the notebook versions originally sold with Windows 7. However, 8.1 is supported for those versions originally sold with Windows 8. I would note, however, that the Windows 8 versions were shipped with a different BIOS (P**ABK) than the Windows 7 versions (P**AAC) presumably because Samsung found that providing full Windows 8 compatibility could not be achieve by a simple BIOS update.

Use the Find Model function in SW Update to locate either NP900X3C-A02PT or NP900X3C-A03PT which are the Windows 8 versions and then use the Export function to save the drivers. However, You may find that updates supplied through Windows Update are more recent. You can also go to more recent notebooks such as the NP940X3G and get more recent versions of generic programs such as Settings or the Elan touchpad driver.

John

 

Thanks, I'll try to do it that way. I have already updated my BIOS today to the last version. Hope the laptop gets a bit more stable as currently I've had a few issues and it is a lot slower doing regular tasks compared to when I bought it.

 

What SSD do you have? If it's the Sandisk U100 then it's a potential bottleneck at the best of times. You may find that swapping the SSD to something bigger and faster will substantially improve the performance. I would suggest you look for the Samsung EVO mSATA as it has lower idle power consumption than the cheaper Crucial M500. There's more about upgrading the SSD in this thread.

John

 

Yes, its the U100 that came originally. I would consider buying another one as I know this one is not that great. I'm just not sure its worth it considering I bought a premium Samsung laptop and they don't even support it with proper drivers for Windows 8.1 that was released just one year after it. I can only assume it will get worse with future Windows versions. I'm not happy with Samsung...

 

But you may want to ask yourself what does Windows 8 / 8.1 provide that Windows 8 doesn't?

I used Windows 8 for a while but I'm now back on Windows 7 and feeling happier.

John

 

Samsung support notwithstanding, you have a perfectly capable piece of hardware that can run W7/W8/W8.1 and probably future versions with ease. John is right, that SSD should never have made its way into their premium line, but the upgrade would be well worth it. Frankly, 128GB is insufficient for most users anyway. As for the drivers, you can probably just download all the ones you need from the X3E/X3G/AB9+ models install once and forget about it. If that is too inconvenient, then maybe you should start shopping for another laptop. I think you will have a hard time finding something as thin and light though.

 

I finally did some signal strength testing, and I can confirm the GTM671 has a flawless reception:

• The WiFi part has the same signal strength as the built-in Intel 6235
  (both tested using the original antenna module of X3E)

• The 3G WWAN part has same signal strength as an older, but very well receiving GTM382
  (tested by putting the GTM671 in the VAIO TT which normally runs the GTM382)

BUT...
the overall performance of X3E with its antennas located in the chassis is just weak compared to the TT which has the antennas in the outer display bezel.
The following numbers result being connected to the same 3G radio cell and a downstairs WiFi AP. The bigger the number, the better.

	TT	X3E
3G	-69dBm	-87dBm
WiFi	-79dBm	-88dBm

As mentioned earlier, the TT has a very good reception. It receives even weak 3G signals, where my phone can't get a fix. It spots several WiFi APs of neighbors, where the X3E can't find any.
Further the TTs WWAN antennas take a more serious approach being placed at a 90° angle to each other (one at side frame, one at top frame). They are also sporting a metal lip which is taped to the back of the lid, so I'm wondering if they even make use of the lid surface itself.
I've tried those antennas also with X3E, holding them up in the air outside of the chassis. Although I got quite close, I couldn't match the TTs signal strength.

What do we learn? Antennas DO NOT belong in the chassis! Samsung now has them moved in the lower display bezel (AB9+), but I don't expect them to work much better either, since they are still pretty much in the center of the whole machine and too much shielded.


Back to the drawing board Samsung!

I'm currently looking at this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/751925-2014-toshiba-port-g-z30-haswell-fullhd-ips-panel.html
While it lacks the style of the Samsungs, it is absolutely packed with all sorts of features while weighting about the same.

 

Wow, that is impressive and ticks all the boxes. I really like that it has a docking connection. It is about 0.5cm thicker though, but full size ports...

 

3

Notebook seems ok ,7 and half hours on notebookcheck , 1,2 kg .Everything is good but i cant find anything about wwan.Where are antennas,because i dont want to dismantle screen so i can put my.
Also can you tell please how you measured dBm,what tools or app did you use?

 

The WWAN in the Z30-A is optional. The device reviewed by notebookcheck lacks the modem, so neither there are antennas. The WiFi antennas disappear into the display hinges though, and I assume so would the WWAN antennas.
Anyway this should be discussed in the other thread.

The WWAN signal strength you can get by talking to the modems serial port using standard AT modem commands. Under windows you can connect to the corresponding COM port via HyperTerminal. "AT+CSQ" will give you the signal strength once you have registered to an operator.

The WiFi signal strength was determined under linux with "iwlist wlan0 scanning".

Don't use the numbers as a reference though, they are always relative to the location of your laptop, radio cell & WiFi AP.

 

What the hell is problem with my trackpad. The cursor moves by itself even if I just hold the finger in place. It jumps all over the screen and makes double click etc like it has it's own life. It stops when I unplug the charger. I knew buying this (windows) laptop was a mistake

 

I would suspect either the charger or some poor quality AC power that is causing your notebook to have some voltage which you ground when holding the touchpad.

Do you get the same problem when using the charger in buildings that are some distance apart? Is the charger grounded? Do you have any other mains powered equipment plugged into the computer?

John

 

This is the same Samsung charger and same place and same wall socket that I've used since I got the computer. Nothing is plugged in on the computer.

 

Something has changed. As the problem does not happen on battery then the likely cause is either the PSU or the mains power.

Using a power socket somewhere else not too close - needs to be on a different supply circuit) will test the mains power. If the problem happens in another location then I would suspect the PSU. If you still have warranty then you can try to get a replacement. If not, it's time to go shopping. It doesn't have to be a Samsung original PSU. Look for something which has an L-shaped power plug. The last one I bought was this (I always like to have a spare PSU in case one dies).

John

 

I found the problem. It happens when I connect my other Samsung laptop to a different wall socket on the other side of the room. Wierd. What could be the reason?

 

Is there any connection between the computers such as through a wired network or to a USB printer?

If not, do you still get the problem if the power supply for the other computer is plugged in to the wall socket but not plugged into the laptop?

John

 

They are both connected in same WLAN. I think I only get the problem when the other laptop is on. At least no problem if the charger is plugged in the wall socket but not in the laptop.

 

Is that a wired network or wireless network? If there is any bit of wire connecting between the computers, even indirectly, something can create a ground loop. If the network connection is via WiFi then this cannot be the cause.

One way to break a ground loop is to remove the grounding for one of the PSUs by using a 2-pin adapter. If you are already using 2-pin ungrounded plugs then there might be a need to provide grounding because something is leaking some power and it is going to ground through your fingers. It still might be useful to check the mains supply and make sure that neutral is not floating at a significant voltage.

John

 

It's WiFi network. They are grounded 2 pin plugs.

 

OK. No wires between the computers except that both plug into the same mains supply.

The next step is to interrupt the grounding for one of the computers, preferably the other Samsung. There's always the possibility that although there's a ground wire within your house, it is not properly grounded to earth which can result in any connected electrical device that is producing some leakage current then affecting the other devices on the same circuit. If the problem is really bad you can pick it up with a mains voltage testing screwdriver (the light should only glow when you put the tip against the live terminal, not for neutral or earth).

John

 

I've been using an external USB keyboard while awaiting a new keyboard but yesterday was unable to access my harddrive using the keyboard so I'd like to run another backup. Does anyone know how to backup when you are unable to access the keys?

I am running windows 7 on my samsung and have recently the laptop has been giving me the blue screen of death while in an applicaiton. I've run all the normal diagnostics and haven't installed any new software recently. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to diagnose this?

Does anyone have experience with disconnecting the battery and AC adapter from the series 9 notebooks?
If so, do you know good resources online that document it in a video?

 

The only way I can think of to do a backup without using a keyboard is to take out the SSD, put into an mSATA - USB adapter and then copy it.

BSODs could be caused by either hardware or driver problems. The best way to exclude the drivers / software would be to restore the factory installation of Windows, which won't be convenient to do. Given that the RAM is soldered the other potentially problematic bit of hardware is the SSD for which you can check the SMART data for errors. You should also check for system overheating.

You can disconnect the battery using the battery disconnect switch by poking a straightened paperclip through the small hole in the bottom of the computer next to a white rectangle with a cross in it. First pull out the mains plug because the battery gets automatically reconnected when the mains power is plugged in.

John

 

I have had my NP900X3C for about 2 years, and while the laptop still seems to be working fine, it does appear that the battery is near the end of life. It doesn't last very long on the battery, even though I primarily use it when connected to the ac adapter. I also get a pop-up message occasionally saying that the battery should be replaced.

I have opened up my laptop once when I replaced the SSD with a 256GB unit, and I seem to remember that the battery was apparently not easy to replace - was it glued in? Anyway, my question is about battery replacement. I located a couple of web sites saying that they have replacement batteries, but because of the very poor English on the sites, I can't really tell if they actually have the proper part. Has anyone actually replaced their battery? Can you recommend a good source?

Ben

 

Nah, it's a simple swap. You just need to get the right replacement battery. There were some "official" samsung batteries on ebay for about $80, but one member reported it took 2 months to receive and it may have been partly defective. A brand new battery from samsungparts.com runs about $150 as I recall.

 

Did you run the battery calibration in the BIOS? If not, fully charge the battery (disable Battery Life Extender if you use it), then fully discharge the battery using the calibration facility then fully recharge it again. Then check the battery properties using HWiNFO or BatteryBar.

If you have put the battery through a daily charge / discharge then I can understand that it is now wearing quite badly although Samsung's advertising claims were at least 70% of capacity after 1500 charge cycles.

John

 

Thanks for the reply. I can't run the battery calibration in the BIOS. If I try, it tells me that I can't run it with the AC adapter connected, and if I disconnect the AC the system dies immediately. It acts as if there isn't even a battery in the system - although the status bar shows 87% of capacity.

Ben

 

Then effectively your battery is close to dead, even if it isn't although I'm sure that it is well past its best. It's time to go shopping.

You didn't indicate how much you have been using the battery. A couple of suggestions for the new battery are (i) if you don't plan to spend a lot of time away from a power socket then use the Battery Life Extender option in (Easy) Settings (Fn+F1) to limit the charge to 80%; and (ii) don't unnecessarily drain and recharge the battery. I keep coming across people who do this on a daily basis even though they have mains power available. Regularly fully draining batteries was sound advice for the nickel-based batteries but causes extra wear for lithium ones.

John

 

Actually I have used the battery very little. Most of the time I have used the laptop with it connected to the AC adapter. And I have had the "Battery Life Extender" option enabled most of the time.

There has probably been less 50 times when the battery was discharged when I wasn't near a power outlet. Needless to say, the Battery life has fallen far short of what Samsung had promised. I have ordered a replacement battery but it hasn't arrived yet.

Ben

 

Unfortunately, the grand claims about the battery longevity seem to have been erased during the website updates. I had taken the precaution of making a PDF of the relevant web page for the X3B in case that happened (I did get that battery replaced under warranty before one year was over but there seems to have been a batch of bad batteries).

If you kept a copy of their promises for the X3C then you should be trying to get Samsung or the retailer to contribute to the cost of the replacement.

John

 

I ordered a replacement battery from a company I found with an internet search. It was from Wholesale Laptop Parts , Wholesale Super Laptop Parts & Accessories and apparently the battery was shipped from China? It did arrive in about 10 days, and the total cost was just under $80, including $13 for shipping. The replacement was marked identically to the battery that it replaced. The date of manufacture was marked as 10/13, which was almost a year old, but also over a year newer than the old battery.

Installation went fine with no problems, and the capacity of this replacement battery seems similar to how my laptop performed when it was new. I'm still a bit disappointed with the life of the original battery, but doubt that I would have any success in getting Samsung to pay for the replacement.

Thanks for your advice.

Ben

 

What does BatteryInfoView report for the new battery? Is the fully charged capacity more or less than the design capacity? The X3C battery in my X3B says Design capacity = 44570 mWh, Fully charged capacity = 46996 mWh. Dell seem to be willing to ship new batteries which fall short of their design capacity but Samsung may work to higher standards.

John

 

I just installed battery info, it reports
Current capacity 80% (Battery Save is enabled)
Current capacity Value 33,958 mWh
Fully Charged Capacity 42,448 mWh
Designed Capacity 44,570 mWh

Battery wear level 95.2%

So I guess that means that my "new" battery is less than optimum, but it does work - which is a lot more than I can say about the one I replaced.

Now, I just finished installation of a Samsung 840 EVO SSD drive (Newegg had the 1TB one on sale for $399). Cloning with the Samsung SSD cloning software worked with no problems,

So now am going through your old threads about to get Rapid Start Technology to work. It is frustrating that the software Samsung has listed for download for the NP900X3C (under Win 8 OS), is still apparently not current. I guess that means I will need to download support software identified for newer models and hope it doesn't kill my system.

Ben

 

1. You may find that if you turn off the Battery Life Extender and let the battery fully charge then it may discover that it can hold more capacity. Anyway, 4.8% below design isn't too bad. I have two brand new original Dell batteries that are worse in that respect.

2. Go straight to this month's discussion at the end of the Rapid Start Technology thread. We figured out which downloads to get from where (also see here) to make it work. That would have been for Windows 7. You may need to check Intel and other places for Windows 8 support.

John

 

Hi Guys.

It appears I have blown my speaker(s) I'm having to hold the laptop up to my ear to hear even at full volume to make out anything and have some added crackles, so I think its gone. Does anyone have any idea what speaker is in there or the size restrictions inside? I would not be adverse to upgrading it somehow for something else that would fit. Appreciate its not your normal software fault but hopefully someone can help

 

Do external speakers or earphones work OK? If not, then try reinstalling the audio driver.

The speakers are special units with part numbers BA96-05929A (left) and BA96-05928A (right).

However, if you think the speakers are dead then buy these, put them in and see if the problem is fixed. They won't set you back a lot of money.

John

 

Great stuff cheers John. It sounds fine when playing through HDMI or earphones so I will go with the ebay ones and cross my fingers.

 

So, we're nearing 2015 and while my NP900X3C is still doing well I do start to keep an eye out for a replacement for some time next year. It for sure shouldn't be heavier, I'd say 1Kg max. Shaving off 150gramm while not losing performance and battery life should be possible with new tech in 3-4 years time, right? Of course, ideally - longer battery life would be nice. And 8 or 16gb ram. The rest of the specs - as long as it isn't much worse, I'm good.

Thing is, after looking around - the Core M systems might be interesting (passive cooling ftw) but for now it all looks disappointing... I mean, most laptops on the market are simply worse than the Series 9, at least when it comes to weight and/or build quality. Looks like the premium market is back to being limited to Apple making a good, high-end, portable laptop. And I'll be damned before I buy that, with those fscked up keyboards and bad Linux support

So sad Samsung pulled out of the market - a worthy successor to the Series 9, just removed the cooling, added ram and latest Intel chip - it'd make for a perfect laptop. I've got my hopes pinned on Asus. Their first round of ultrabooks was of questionable quality - I went for the Samsung Series 9 after touching one of the Asus competitors, which offered the same specs for 30% less but felt badly built. But their new stuff seems quite OK... Still, the stupid glass back (really, REALLY?), the weight being too high, ...

/me stops before it becomes an all-out rant at the state of the laptop market. Anybody has any other suggestions?!?

 

It might also be worthwhile keeping an eye on the Dell products. An update of the XPS13 is in the pipeline. However, it is likely to have a glossy screen which you may not want (and the glass layer of a touchscreen adds some weight and thickness). The Latitude range is available with non-glare screens but are built for ease of servicing which tends to increase the thickness and weight.

Samsung made a successor to the X3C called the NP900X3G and then decided to stop selling notebooks in Europe (and did its best to minimise awareness of the NP900X3G in the USA).

Technology progress seems to be incremental and you may do better to hope your X3C keeps running into 2016 (with upgraded SSD if you are still using the 128GB) by which time the cumulative improvements may result in the product you want.

John

 

Not as stylish as the S9, but spec wise top notch: http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/751925-2014-toshiba-port-g-z30-haswell-fullhd-ips-panel.html

 

Whoah, hadn't found the NP900X3G, that is exactly what I was looking for - the increased power efficiency of Haswell, double ram, slightly better screen (same would've been fine with me but whatever) and otherwise they didn't screw anything up. That does make for the best laptop on the market... Not cheap, though, but worth it ;-)

Thanks a lot for that, I'll keep my X3C but if it breaks or the ram starts to bother me enough, I'll get a X3G.

Now hope they do the same with Broadwell, just replace the CPU and double up on the ram ;-)

@oled - last time I checked, the Toshiba's were indeed thin and light but build quality... *shudder*

I treat my devices as tools and I use them - I don't worship them and keep them ultra safe all the time. So the solid aluminum of the series 9 is needed in my case, it already has its share of dents ;-)

Or put it in other terms, I've never even bothered trying to sell a device after I was 'done' with it as they rarely are still useful... My HTC One (m7) already has a broken front facing cam and much of the black paint has disappeared... I don't mind as long as it works fine otherwise but nobody will ever buy it ;-)

 

At the moment the US versions of the NP900X3G are still available (but I don't know whether they are replenishing stock or the lack of awareness means the product isn't shifting). If you don't want a US keyboard then this notebook is very hard to find. Some arrived in Europe just before Samsug decided to stop selling notebooks in Europe but those were all sold.

At the moment I have doubts if Samsung are working on Broadwell notebooks. Someone made the short-sighted decision that there was more money to be made in phones and tablets than in notebooks and I doubt if the Samsung decision-making process could contemplate the loss of face associated with doing a quick U-turn and get Samsung's premium notebooks (eg Series / Books 7, 8 & 9) back onto the production line. The latest quarterly results showed that Samsung was getting badly squeezed in the phone sector. I had wondered if they would try to sell the notebook business (as they did with hard drives) but there's no indication of that happening. It would be a good match to have a company with good software skills (Samsung's weakness) combined with the Samsung hardware.

John

 

I was fortunate enough to find a new in box on ebay a few months back. Unfortunately, it still doesn't have displayport, so can't be used as a 4k desktop replacement. Other than that, same build quality, the great matte 1080p display from the X3E/F, msata up to 1TB and slightly improved wifi make it one of the better 13"ers on the market I think. I agree with John, it seems unlikely we will see broadwell anything from Samsung. We'll see if they're a no-show at CES.

 

Firstly Merry Christmas!

Thanks for the link John, I ended up popping those speakers in and all is well again

Today I have a slightly worse problem to solve. Since updating to 8.1 my SW update did not work normally, in that you had to select the model and manually download programs (I selected X3E for 8.1)........until yesterday, when it popped up that it had an update and then proceeded to work normal with the update/ recommended / programs start page. I downloaded a few updates like settings, which messed up my auto dim off and power options. sorted that out, but when I turned on today I get a boot manager missing message.

Managed to get into windows with F4, have tired system restore with two different points but no change, downloaded 8.1 to a USB, moved C: down in bios and USB up but it won't boot from it. I can open it in windows but after a while I get a "something happened, we can't tell if your PC is ready to continue installing, try restarting setup" message. Again, tried that a few times now with the same message.

Any ideas what to try next? I don't have a recovery partition since I upgraded my SSD either.

 

@Pablo13: Merry Christmas to you as well

The first thing I would check is whether the USB you created to install Win8.1 has the correct format: GPT/FAT32 if you're in UEFI mode, MBR/NTFS if you're in legacy BIOS mode (CSM). Also make sure Fast BIOS/Fast Boot and SecureBoot are disabled in BIOS.

That won't explain what caused the computer to stop working in the first place. But those are the most common reasons why users are unable to boot a USB stick with Windows Setup.

See this post for details.

 

That's good news.

Do you still have the original SSD? I always keep it so I can put it pack if I hit a problem.

If you do get the computer running then I suggest uninstalling Settings and reinstalling whatever is the most recent version for the X3C. The latest versions of Settings don't properly support some of the older notebooks.

John

 

Nice one Guys, UEFI was stopping it it. It now boots from USB but start up recovery can't fix the problem so it looks like it will have to be a fresh install to fix. I have a Windows 10 iso sitting on my desktop, wonder if it would be too much of a risk to go with that rather than 8.1?

John, I do have the old SSD, but if I can avoid refitting it, I will I'm typing this from the computer now, you can get it to boot into windows up by hitting F4 to take you to safe mode with network I guess, not that you would know, everything appears and programs I have tried seems normal once I'm in here.

 

A few people have tried windows 10 on their Samsung notebooks. Most things worked OK but there were some niggles or worse.

If you are going to reinstall Windows 8 then you could first give Windows 10 a try so you can add to the knowledgebase here or what does, and does not, work.

However, if you can get the Windows 8 installer running then I believe there's a repair option which should be able to fix any boot manager issues.

John

 

I would point out that enabling/disabling the UEFI setting in BIOS (OS Mode Selection) in order to boot the USB is NOT advisable: It will render the current Windows installation AND Recovery unworkable, and it will usually either make the SSD invisible during Windows Setup or wipe it due to a GPT/MBR conversion.

If you have an UEFI model (one delivered with Win8.x) then your current SSD is GPT and your Recovery depends on that. Make sure the USB is formatted as GPT/FAT32, otherwise it cannot boot.

Conversely, if you have a legacy BIOS model (one delivered with Win7) then your current SSD is MBR and your recovery depends on that. Make sure the USB is formatted as MBR/NTFS.

Again, details are in that post I linked above.