2013 Ativ Book 9 13.3" Ivy Bridge NP900X3E / NP900X3F

I did a refresh on my NP900X3E-K01US and this time the 8.1 worked good. Had one glitch on a driver that said it could not shut down a service. I think I went to the service.msc and disabled it and then it installed. I can't remember which driver but it may have been the track pad one. All windows updates and sw updates done and the machine seems to work great now. Bought a new ext BDR drive and that seems to work now with new nero software. So IMO the NP900X3E-K01US is 8.1 ready. Don't have any issues now. (knock on wood)

 

Yay, maybe i will finally start the adventure of upgrading to 8.1 then. In a couple of weeks, to be 100% safe.

 

I messed with this (interesting read btw) :
Windows Mouse Things: The MarkC Windows 8.1 + 8 + 7 Mouse Acceleration Fix

Bottom line: I didn't fully understand the functions so far, but messing a bit once gave me a result where I was able to *both* get sufficiently high precision when navigating just a few pixels, *and* an acceleration that allowed a quick, short-in-length swipe to throw the cursor right across the 9's screen. However, precisions for mid-range was not good at all and there were threshold where the pointer would suddenly "warp". But as I said, I didn't try to optimize that much because I didn't understand everything so far. The problem seems to be that this emulates behavior of previous windows versions and is possibly not ideal for today's high res screens either. But it is obvious that this is a software thing. I wonder what could be done, or even if windows 8.1 allows for faster acceleration. As fas as I remember, acceleration on newer windows systems works more smoothly, which is required for mid range precision.

Any reports on a wider range of mouse acceleration/speed in Win 8.1 would be much appreciated.

 

I don't know if Windows 8.1 itself has different mouse speed settings. However, the touchpad driver which Samsung released for 8.1 changed the sensitivity, it feels much faster in the default setting compared to the older driver.
I also think it feels a bit more unprecise, but that might be just my personal preference.

I can't give you details as my 900x3f is currently at the repair center due to the strange fan behaviour - hope they can fix it (edit: just got a mail that they are sending it back, let's see...)

 

This is a driver issue. I'm running linux and the synaptics driver lets you configure speeds by either dpi or pressure. I've just tested the former though.
Only issue I have is that it is not as sensitive as I wished to register a very quick tap.

I share your view of the active fan policy to cool down to the minimum ( that is 47°C btw) could easily be higher. Other than that the dual heat pipe / fan cooling system is simply the best I've ever seen in terms of cooling power & and (no) noise emission.

So I'd vote +++

Noise is pretty much non existent. Even with the highest fan speeds I hardly ever recognize it.
The bottom vents you mention are not an issue: I did a furmark / prime torture test having the laptop resting on the blanket of the bed with even the back vents partly covered and the cpu never throttled. The fans might run faster, but at the same time noise is absorbed by whatever you cover the vents with.

The linux driver comes with three settings: silent / normal / overclock
In silent mode the fans are off at low usage. Once the temperature reach 55°C one fan kicks in, it shuts off again at 47°C. The second fan kicks in at 64°C / shuts off again at 55°C.
So with modest room temperatures I am able to run the laptop (that is with FULL cpu load):
- fanless @800MHz (min freq)
- one fan @1900MHz (normal freq)
- two fans @ 2900MHz (turbo mode)

Fanless of course is also possible with automatic scaling (no manual throttling) on light usage

In the other modes the fans are always running with even higher speeds. I never have to use those modes though as even with full cpu usage silent mode provides enough cooling power. Of course fan speeds increase with rising temperatures.

I don't know which modes the win drivers provide, but the temperature / fan thresholds for all those modes are defined by the BIOS itself.

NP900X3E-A with i7-3537U

 

I got my NP900X3F back today after having sent it to the service center (LetMeRepair).
According to the deliver note they changed the system board.

However, after running it for a couple of hours, the issue returned, fans turning up to max even tough everything is idle and running cool- I quite expected this...
Meh. I start believing that this is a bug somewhere in the BIOS if chaning the system board did not solve it.

I don't know yet what to do now, I wait until Samsung contacts me for getting feedback and tell them.
*shrug*

 

My hopes are now that the LG Z935 will get an international release, else I will try to import it. LG Z935, 13.3-inch (qHD) ultrabook with Haswell - YouTube
This is lighter than the Series 9 (!), has won a design price, the keyboard "looks" to me like it could be quite silent, and tbh I think its incredibly sexy, don't know why but it just looks sexy to me. A bit feminine, glossy, and still understated. Wonderful machine and it comes with TWO micro sd card slots. Probably no touch/still glossy, but I can live with that. Up to 8GB of RAM/256GB/4500U. Also it has a great touchpad that is invisible! No clicks, everything is done by touch (I hate clicking the touchpad and much prefer two finger tab for right-click). Remains to be seen if the fan misbehaves or not, and if the keyboard really is library-compatible.
I gave up on hoping the Macbook Air 2014 might be a choice next year - because Windows support is quite bad on macs (driver issues and all kinds of problems etc.) - unless they change this on the 2014 which I don't believe.
What do you think of this laptop? Check out lg z935 - YouTube for more reviews.
previous model tear down: http://www.notegear.com/Content/Content_View.asp?TNum=1466&kind=2&gotopage=1
(korean) <<- oh my god, this is the most perfectionist and wonderful notebook review I have ever seen (previous model as noted). 13 pages!!
translation: http://translate.google.com/transla...page=1&TNum=1466&kind=2&SearchString=&Search=

z935 to be releasen this month in korea. did i mention I love korea? If I had to leave Germany, I'd go to South Korea

 

http://interacom.eu/laptop/asus/u/zenbook-ux31e/ux31la-r5024h-i7.4500u.8gb.1600x900.128gb.ssd/
or
JAR Computers - 13.3" (33.78 cm) Asus ZenBook UX31LA-R5024H +подарък чанта, двуядрен Haswell Intel® Pentium® 4500U 1.8/3.0GHz, HD+ LED Display (HDMI & mini DisplayPort), 8GB, 128GB SSD, 2x USB3.0, Windows8, 1.4kg, 2г. - ПреÐ
UX31LA-R5024H
* i7 4500U
* 8GB RAM
* 1600*900 *MATTE*
* 1,4 kg
* does not have the stupid display that is somewhat disturbing when on the lap, like the infinity 301 has.
* nice design
* silent keyboard unlike Samsung series 9
* just 1100 Euros and no custom fees thanks to EU, for people living in the EU.
well, this seems to be a model especially for Bulgaria -- but Bulgaria is EU, so you have 7 days (soon 14 days) return policy by law for internet sales.
there's an excellent review at sweclockers, and also at some .no norwegian site.
france has the i5 4gb in matte:
http://www.materiel.net/ordinateur-portable/asus-zenbook-ux31la-r5017h-92036.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOoOL22do7g

as you can see in the sweclockers test, there seem to have been improvements, especially on fan noise, versus the old zenbook prime.

 

I'm trying to find the latest graphics driver for my X3F. My current driver is 9.17.10.2963 from January 2013. That is the version SW Update offers as well. And when checking through "Find model", it shows version 10.18.10.3304. But when trying to install that I get an error:

Intel Driver Update Utility tells me:

And when trying to install the latest driver from Intel's site, I get:

Am I stuck with an almost year-old driver?

EDIT: Solved. Just unintalled the old driver and the latest installed nicely afterwards. Cant believe I didnt think that earlier.

 

Just to keep you up to date...
I've sent it in again today, I wonder what they will change now (maybe the keyboard).
If the issue still persists, I'll try to get a refund - that's definitely not acceptable.

I'm still not sure if this is a hardware or a firmware/BIOS issue, Samsung support just tells me to send it in (send it in, send it in, have it checked, lallalaa *sing*).

If anybody observes the same fan misbehaviour, please let me know.

 

Hey,

I got an NP900X3F-k01 and make a fresh installation of Win 8.1 Pro on it, but I have a problem when i wanna go into the sleep / standby mode . Sometimes it dosen't go into the sleep mode correctly.
Screen and Sound turns off, but the Fans and the blue Power LED are still on and the Laptop dosen't go into sleep mode. this happents not all the time. just every 3-4 time, when I want to go to sleep-mode.

powercfg -energy dosent show an issue
I also deactivate hybernate by powercfg -h off

The wired thing is, it just runs one week without any problems and this is my second NB900x3f-K01 with the same behavior. I installed all of the Samsung new drivers and in an addition to that i tried all new drivers manualy from the manufactures itself (intel, atheros, etc.)

Have anybody the same issues, or an solution?!?!?! I just tried it for about one week without success.


Thank you very much and sorry for my bad english... english is not my native language

Greetings



EDIT:
On both divices I flashed the new P02ACX Firmware

 

Hello everyone,

I have an NP900X3E-K06DE (i7-3537, 512 GB SSD) and have (almost) successfully attempted a downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7. However, a couple of seperate issues remain:

1) The USB 3.0 port (on the left) is not working. I tried it with different USB 3 memory sticks, and they light up, but no data connection exists. I know for sure the hardware is fine, as the port used to work with USB 3.0 speeds on Windows 8. For some reason, I cannot install the USB 3.0 driver from SW update, i.e. it comes up with a "installation failed (-10)" message. I have tried installing Renesas USB controller drivers manually, but that did not help either. The USB 2 port on the right-hand side works just fine. In my device manager, a "Intel WiUSB" entry shows up as well, not sure what this relates to. My suspicion is that Windows 7 picked some generic drivers which do not my specs perfectly, but it's odd that I cannot overwrite this with SW Update. Any ideas? Happy to post picture of device manager if it helps.

2) In order to downgrade to Windows 7, I have had to delete all partitions and change the disk volume to MBR from GPT (using diskpart during windows installation) before the Windows 7 install would complete successfully. Before I got rid of Windows 8, I created a recovery backup to an external hard-drive in the Samsung Recovery software and ticked the "bootable drive" option. Now with Windows 7 installed, I cannot install Samsung Recovery software from SW update because (obviously) the Samsung Recovery partition does not exist anymore (hence F4 at start-up also does not work). Is there a way I can re-create a recovery partition without deleting my Windows 7 installation, and if yes, how do I do this (gparted?) Once done, would I be able to use my external recovery to restore to Windows 8, or is the Win 7 Samsung recovery software incompatible to the one used in Win 8? Does the backup even include the operating system, etc., i.e. complete mirror?

Would be very grateful for answers, hints or further information on one or both of these issues.

Many thanks in advance!
Matt

 

Have you tried Renesas driver 3.0.20.0 from X3C? Direct download here
Try to remove old drivers and/or the device before installing.

 

@macmatt43:

1) Win7 doesn't come with USB3 drivers, and you definitely should be able to install the ones from SW Update, since your model is supported for WIn7.

Although I am very selective about which items to let SW Update install, in the case of a clean Win7 installation, I do recommend you let it install most of the essential hardware drivers, with the exception of WiFi (use the latest Intel Driver Only package), Bluetooth (use Win7's built-in) and Intel ME (use Windows Update). In particular should you let SW Update install Chipset and Windows Updates and Patches. If you did NOT install Chipset, that may explain the USB3 problem. Use our Win7 install guide as reference. But it's not the first time Series 9 owners have had USB3 issues, maybe others have suggestions.

2) You did everything almost perfectly right regarding your Recovery backup and conversion from UEFI/GPT to Legacy BIOS/MBR -- except I understand you made the backup to an external hard drive, whereas Recovery needs a removable USB flash drive in order to be able to boot the backup. Unfortunately, I am sorry to say, that could mean you have lost your recovery. The fact that Recovery completed the backup, even with "Create Boot Disk" enabled, is a good sign. If you can boot that backup disk, that's great. That is now your only way to get Recovery again -- and thus to access the backup you made. If you used the Backup tab in Recovery (and assuming you can boot that backup disk) you can restore your old Windows installation.

For other users who are about to wipe their disk, the ideal backup is a Bootable Factory Image, using the Factory Image tab in Recovery (as described in this Samsung guide) and enabling the "Create Boot Disk" option. This backup must be made to a USB flash drive, 32GB required for most models. Avoid SanDisk drives because they work as fixed disks, not removable disks, which makes them incompatible with Recovery. With such as Bootable Factory Image backup, the entire disk can be re-imaged to factory state, Recovery partitions and all. There is more description in this post, including why having a secondary backup is often a good idea.

As for running the Recovery app in Windows, that only works as long as you have a matching Recovery partition (Win7 or Win8). You can always access Recovery through F4 anyway, even if your Recovery is Win7 and you installed Win8. (The opposite is more tricky, as described in this discussion). The Windows Recovery app really is just another way to access that Recovery partition, and it too relies on F4.

If the Recovery partitions are modified with 3rd party imaging or partition editing tools (including popular tools such as Acronis, Clonezilla, Paragon and Easeus) you normally lose the F4 link -- and Recovery is gone for good, unless you have one of those Bootable Factory Image Backups. Many experienced users backup images of their disk using such tools, which is fine for Windows partitions (I use that too). But on Samsung laptops, restoring Recovery partitions -- and with some tools even just editing partition sizes or restoring other partitions -- destroys the F4 link in the partition table, causing Recovery access to be lost.

But you made a backup with Recovery, which is the way to go. I really hope you are able to boot that backup disk. Please let us know, as we like input on how this works from different users.

Regarding the Win7 installation, you could try again, following the Win7 install guide (linked above), and see if that gets USB3 working. Or you could wait a little longer if others have suggestions regarding the USB3 drivers.

 

@ Dannemand

Thanks for the informative reply! Some follow-up questions regarding the recovery issues, which I would be very interested to hear your view on:

1) In the "Win7 install guide" you link to, it says the disk has to be converted back to GPT (ie. deleting Win 7 installation) before attempting to use recovery back to Win 8. Is there any more direct way in which I can test if the recovery I made is any good?

2) Below is a screenshot of what the file structure of my recovery image looks like.



Does this look bootable to you? If not, can I somehow use the info in this thread to achieve bootability?

4) If I were to transfer (drag/drop) this recovery backup to a 32GB USB Stick, how would I format that USB stick to make it bootable?

5) I assume a working factory boot image is bootable regardless of whether a recovery partition exists / whether F4 on start up works (as F4 obviously will not work for me)

6) Would you generally recommend having a system partition and a data partition in Windows 7, or are there no real-life advantages over having just one big partition?

Many thanks
Matt

 

Great questions. See my responses below:

You could temporarily enable UEFI ( OS Mode Selection=UEFI & CSM OS -- or even just UEFI OS) and try to boot that disk, but without actually restoring from it. Also disable Fast Boot/Fast BIOS. Press F10 after a cold start to select boot device.

After seeing that it works (I cross my fingers that it does), make sure you set your BIOS back, so that you can boot Win7 again.

I am afraid it doesn't look bootable to me. But try it nevertheless: Maybe Recovery hides some boot files (or a second partition) that are not readily visible.

Again, unfortunately no. That USB stick had to be created while you had Recovery working.

There is an alternative: If you can get hold of a so-called USB Admin Tool created on a Samsung laptop with the same version of Samsung Recovery Solution as yours (SRS 6.x), you can use this tool to re-create Recovery partitions on your disk -- working Recovery, but without any images in it. Once you have that, you can F4 boot Recovery and restore the backup you created from the external disk. USB Admin Tool is a USB stick (500MB is enough) created using the secret Management Mode in Recovery, as described in this post. If you manage to get hold of one, this post describes how to use it to re-image your drive. Of course this will wipe everything on the drive.

Correct. A Bootable Factory Image Backup on a USB stick can be booted and used to re-image the disk, no matter how messed up it becomes. That's why you will find countless posts where I recommend this backup.

Another great question.

I much prefer having a separate Data partition, because it allows me to backup and restore Windows installations and upgrade to new Windows versions, without affecting my data. I can even switch between Win7 and Win8 installations using the same data. But that requires some setup of user folders and libraries (as described in this post) and may not be for everybody.

Also, it wastes a some disk space because you now need empty space on both your Windows and Data partitions, instead of sharing that space on a single partition. See this discussion for more.

 

Did you look in Event Viewer's System Log to see if it records any process that is blocking the shutdown?

I much prefer using hibernation to sleep because it is usually much more reliable. Did you check if hibernation works properly?

John

 

Hey John,

thanks for your reply.
good tip to look in the event log.. I just recover back to Win 8.0 and set it up to samsungs default. It seems to work now ok.. It must be a driver or program, witch blocks the sleep mode.
The hibernation sleep is working well, but it takes a little bit longer and writes to much into the ssd... so I prefer the S3 sleep mode. ;-)

Well I will now test Win 8.0's behavior a little bit to exclude a hardware issue. After that I will roll back to win 8.1 and look into the Event log...
...it is just a little bit wired, on two machines with a clean install.

But thanks anyway.

 

I wouldn't worry about the SSD wear caused by hibernation. You probably need to hibernate at least 10,000 times for the wear to be significant and few of us keep our notebook that long.

John

 

Hey John,

thank you for your advice! I finally figured out what the issue causes in the event log. Sometimes just a small hint could make the difference.
The problem was the AVM VPN Client . There must be a driver issue under Win 8.1. Microsoft change a lot in network settings.
I just removed the VPN Client and the driver... and now every works fine!

Your right, hibernate is not as bad for the SSD, but I am somebody who want a good, perfect and clean system and everything must be working fine.
It is the little "Monk" inside of me.

And hibernate still goes on after a couple of minutes in standby.


So thank you again.. sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees

 

Thanks for the update.

Windows 8.1 changed a lot more than we expected (and didn't change what many of us wanted).

John

 

@Dannemand (and others :

I have managed to solve some of my problems, however inadvertendly caused/discovered some (probably unrelated) others. In a nutshell:

1) USB: The USB 3.0 port now works. To resolve the issue, I uninstalled everything USB related in device manager, rebooted and manually installed the Renesas USB 3.0 driver. Thanks for your help on this!

2) RECOVERY: Recovery is still an issue, as the backup I created on an external hard disk is not bootable. Very frustrating, as SRS should not have let me create a backup with "bootable disk" ticked in the first place, but should have warned me about non-bootability of the external hard drive instead. Surely, this is not a "feature" but a bug. I still hold out hopes for a functioning recovery though, but I think that depends on these two questions:

a) If I manage to install a recovery partition on my current configuration (Win 7, MBR, etc.) and hence get F4 working again, can this recovery partition be used with my non-bootable recovery on external hard-disk created under Win 8? Or is there an issue of incompatibility (Win 7 vs Win 8, MBR vs GPT, SRS 5 vs SRS 6)?

b) In terms of the USB admin tool to be used for creating the recovery partition mentioned above in a), does this need to be the SRS 6 version (Win 8) or SRS 5 (Win 7) or are both fine? Since this admin tool is about 500MB, I would not believe it is not downloadable somewhere on the web, e.g. from someone in a similar situation or even someone from this forum - Could anyone point me the right way? Once I have the USB admin tool files, making the USB drive bootable (e.g. with RMPrepUSB) is easy.

3) Hang on Win 7 "Welcome" screen: After setting up my Win 7 installation with software, settings etc, I noticed that the laptop now hangs on the Win 7 blue "Welcome" screen for about 20 seconds, followed by a black screen for another 10 seconds before the Winstart sound and desktop pops up. Strangely, this only happens after complete shut downs and after some reboots (though not all reboots!) and also happens after most wake-ups from sleep/standby. In an attempt to fix, I uninstalled some of my software (Avast, PDFCreator, DaemonTools, Adobe Reader, Paragon backup), played around with Samsung fast boot mode and ran CC Cleaner again to see if the issue would go away, but to no avail. I also went through CC Cleaner start up items and deactivated these, same with start up items in MSConfig. If I only leave the system startups activated or boot into safe mode, it seems fine for one boot, however after complete shutdown the problem reappears. This is very frustrating, as obviously there is really nothing that should be slowing this machine down so much at start-up (and it did start in a flash before setting it up!). Windows system recovery point is not an option as they do not exist. Any ideas? Anyone with similar hang problems at start-up?

4) Permanent silent mode: EasySettings gives me the option to enable silent mode. However, I do not seem able to enable this permanently, i.e. after each reboot, the system is back to regular mode and the fan is audible. Any suggestions how to fix this?

 

Re 1) Great, good job fixing that USB issue.

Re 2) I agree, Recovery should make it very clear that the backup must go on a removable drive. It's definitely not the best backup software around -- it just happens to be the only one that works without breaking Recovery on restore.

Re 2a) Unfortunately no, you can not mix and match Win7/BIOS/MBR with Recovery for Win8/UEFI/GPT: Since your PC was delivered with Win8 and SRS6, Recovery has to be on a GPT disk, and UEFI mode must be enabled when using it (to the best of my knowledge). And from that follows that you cannot use the Samsung Recovery app in Win7 while running BIOS/MBR mode. If Win7 was installed in UEFI mode on a GPT disk, you can still have Recovery on the disk -- but Win7 and UEFI was always a bit shaky on Samsung laptops.

Re 2b) USB Admin Tool contains the actual Recovery software that is installed on the Recovery partition when a disk is re-imaged, and it absolutely must be made with the same version as the backup image (or factory image) you are going to restore. In your case SRS6 -- and possibly the subversion (6.x) has to be the same as well. The best way is clearly if you can get to a Samsung laptop like your own (or with the same SRS version) and create an Admin Tool on a USB stick . Otherwise I would say creating and restoring an image of an Admin Tool USB stick (Clonezilla, Paragon, Acronis or similar) is the best way to get it from someone else (as opposed to copying the files and manually making it bootable).

Not many people know about Admin Tool, since Management Mode is a hidden function, and I think the chance of finding the right version out there is small.

For legal reasons, we are very strict about not allowing discussion of (or requests for) sharing of copyrighted software on the forum (or anything illegal -- check the NBR forum rules). SRS is like a driver or utility program that comes with every PC, so it may be OK, as long as it doesn't include an image with the Windows software. But we don't know Samsung's stance on this. In order to protect NBR, I prefer we not have further sharing discussion in the forum.

About the whole Recovery thing: Since you already lost it, and since you cannot use it anyway as long as you're on a Win7/BIOS/MBR installation, I suggest you simply contact Samsung and ask if they can provide Recovery media for you. They used to include that with all laptops, then stopped doing it. But I've seen a few members report positively about getting from them.

Re 3) Something is clearly wrong there. Assuming you installed all the right drivers and no wrong ones (as per the Win7 install guide) I would say check Easy Settings. Try uninstalling it first (reboot) and see if the machine behaves more normal. Then re-install it, making sure you find the latest version (as described in the Settings/Easy Settings thread). And do NOT install Settings, it's for Win8.

Re 4) I believe that's normal behavior for Win7 (though different in Win8). Silent Mode is not meant to be a permanent mode, since it caps the CPU at very slow speed. Read more about samsung power management this post and the links included in there.

 

Re 1) Thanks, it was due to your help as well!

Re 2) Fully understood regarding sharing of copyrighted software. I will try two routes with recovery: One is to get Recovery Media from Samsung, as you suggest. Two is re-inserting my old 128GB SSD (with a recovery partition on it!), installing Windows 8 on it (without deleting the recovery partition, if possible?! I think this must be possible, in the same way it's possible for Win 7 users upgrading to Win 8 to keep their recovery partition and make it work with Win 8?), installing SRS 6 (hoping it will recognise the old Win 7 recovery partition!), creating USB admin tool, and then using this to recreate recovery partition on my current setup. Adventurous but may work!? Or is there an error in my logic?

Re 3) Thanks for the hint, will try uninstalling EasySettings and see what happens. If the problem persists, I might wipe the system again in connection with potential recovery restore discussed above and will report back.

Re 4) Understood. Was just getting used to the unbelieavble quietness of silent mode! ;-)

Thanks again and will report back!
Matt

 

Just got my NP900X3F-G01DE back again after being at the repair center twice.
They changed the systemboard, the screen unit, the upper assy (with keyboard) and both fans.
That means that alsmost every component has benn exchanged now.
Guess what - it just me just a couple of seconds and the fan started to run up like an airplane again. Actually directly after entering my password.
And no, there was no CPU usage or high temperature or any process... this is ridiculous? I can't be the only one with this issue.

I think I'll ask my dealer to get a refund and wait for CES, maybe some other interesting models will appear soon then...
Otherwise it's a nice machine... *sigh*

 

Whoa, I didn't realize you had the original SSD with Recovery still on it. That's great

I wasn't 100% sure what you suggested, but I understand that this was originally a Win8 machine, which means the Recovery on the original SSD is SRS6. Assuming that is correct, you should hardly have to do anything difficult: You just swap that SSD back in, enable UEFI (OS Mode Selection=UEFI OS, SecureBoot=enabled) then F4 boot Recovery. From there you can either create a USB Admin Tool (on a 500MB USB stick) OR one of those Bootable Factory Image backups I mentioned earlier (on a 32GB USB stick). Personally, I would make both: USB Admin Tool has some advanced features and is interesting to have (you probably have a spare 500MB stick anyway). But the Factory Image is easier to use and allows you to re-image the drive to complete factory state, in case you mess up your disk or Windows installation -- or if you want to sell the PC someday.

Once you have those USB backups (one or the other or both), just keep them safe, swap the Win7 disk back in, and get on using it (disable UEFI first: OS Mode selection=CSM OS, SecureBoot=disabled). There is nothing more you can do with SRS6 as long as you have an MBR disk in your PC. These Recovery tools are for the day when you need to restore your backup or re-image the disk to factory state (enable UEFI before using them).

Of course if you are looking at re-installing Win7 one more time anyway and wiping the disk, you could test the USB Admin Tool and/or Factory Image backup before doing so (and while still in UEFI mode). There is never a better time to test and learn these tools than when you have a blank disk

 

Sorry Dannemand, just realised my post was misleading.

What I actually have is an old 128GB SSD with Windows 7 and a SRS5 Samsung Recovery Partition on it from an old NP900X3C which I sold to a friend with a new 256GB SSD in it (but have access to if I need it). I am hoping that I can on that machine:
- Install Windows 8 over the Windows 7 partition without destroying the Recovery, i.e. staying on MBR rather than switching to GPT?
- Install SRS 6.5 from SW Update (will only work if SRS6/Windows 8 recognises the Recovery Partition made with SRS5/Windows 7)?
- Create a USB admin tool to use later with my current machine in case I wanted to restore to the non-bootable Windows 8 recovery I made.

The only potential glitches I see are related to MBR/GPT...: In order to preserve the Recovery partition, the disk needs to remain formatted as MBR, correct? Can Windows 8 be installed on MBR, i.e. without wiping the existing recovery partition? If yes, will SW update allow me to install SRS6, i.e. will it accept the existing recovery partition? And lastly, will a USB admin tool created in Windows 8 on a MBR formatted disk work in Windows 8 on a GPT on formatted disk?

I am still somehow not fully convinced by this plan :-(... but really want to try it if you think it makes vague sense

 

@macmatt43:

Oh I see. Unfortunately that is not going to work

You can definitely install Win8 on an MBR disk that contains an SRS5 partition, and still have that Recovery working. That's what I have on my NP700Z3A. But it is still SRS5, not SRS6. You will not be able to upgrade to SRS6, because the actual SRS software is on the Recovery partition which is not upgradable. The Windows app is just a user interface shell relying on the core software on the Recovery partition. Upgrading a Win7 machine to Win8 does NOT upgrade SRS.

SRS5 and SRS6 have completely different structures; among them, SRS6 uses separate partitions for Recovery boot/software and for Data (factory image), while SRS5 uses a combined Recovery partition for both. I also doubt that SRS5 supports the SRS6 image formats, including your backup.

I am not ruling out that SRS6 could be installed and work on an MBR disk (although I don't see the option to choose MBR/GPT when using SRS6 Admin Tool or Bootable Factory Image Backup to re-image a drive). But the factory image on SRS6 models (as well as backups created with it) contains GPT installations which wouldn't run on an MBR disk in legacy BIOS mode. And in any case do you not have SRS6 software unless you can get hold of a SRS6 Admin Tool.

Even if Samsung send you a Recovery DVD, it may just be clean Win8 install media -- which is pretty great to have in itself, but doesn't help you restore your backup. Still, I think it's your best bet if you can get that from them. When the time comes you want to use Win8, just clean install it and use SW Update to load drivers. It's very easy and yields a faster installation -- but it does require that you re-install your programs.

Until then, or until you get an Admin Tool, we should park the Recovery discussion, so we don't hijack the thread any further. There really is nothing more you can do at the moment, other than just get your Win7 going.

 

Thanks for your help though, I think I have found a solution that I can live with regarding recovery

Also, thanks for the hint on reinstalling EasySettings - that did the trick on the slow startup!

One final unrelated glitch I currently have on the machine (Windows 7 on a NP900X3E-K06DE): It seems that something is overriding the Windows power settings regarding what happens when I press the power button.

I.e. no matter what I select in Windows power management ("When press power button do nothing/standby/shut down...") when I actually press it, the laptop does a weird thing of logging off and sort of standing by, so that when I wake up the machine again, I have to log on and programs are re-started (i.e. icons are started back up next to the clock). So in effect, it almost feels like a shut down, but it is not hibernation, and fairly slow (15 seconds)...

I have found no corresponding settings outside of Windows power management, e.g. in Easy Settings or in BIOS that would conflict with Windows power button settings. I suspect the problem could have something to do with Intel Rapid Start, but I am not sure it is actually enabled on my laptop, as I wiped all partitions in getting to Windows 7...

Any ideas what this, similar experiences or even suggestions how to fix it?

Many thanks!
Matt

p.s. if anyone is interested in any real-life details of my setup or downgrade to Windows 7, feel free to ask away!

 

Of course now I am dying to know what you discovered. So I'll have to ask you to tell me, thread hijacking be damned

The semi-hibernation you're describing sounds almost exactly like the Fast Startup feature in Win8: It logs out the user, but hibernates the system state, which is much smaller and faster to resume than the full user state. Personally I love that feature in Win8, but Win7 doesn't have that.

I know you said you wiped the Intel Rapid Start partition, but did you re-install it (IRSTRT), in which case it could have created a partition and be working again?

Also, do you have Hybrid Sleep enabled (under Sleep inside each Power Plan)? This feature will BOTH hibernate and sleep when you choose Sleep, so that the computer can wake up quickly from RAM (as long as there is still battery) but will resume from hibernation if power dies (and thus RAM is lost).

Easy Settings implements Samsung Fast Start, which causes the computer to wake up when you open the lid (not otherwise standard Windows behavior) and lets you enable/disable this setting. See this post for definitions of the various Fast This and Rapid That features on Samsung laptops.

Easy Settings also implements Samsung Fast Boot Mode (not to be confused with the Fast BIOS/Fast Boot setting in BIOS, or any of the other Fast Features). This is a nasty Boot Optimization feature that messes with Windows' loading of startup tasks, in order to pretend that the computer boots faster -- but in reality just delays loading of those tasks until later in the day, which can cause all kinds of strange problems. What is most tricky about it, is that it keeps doing its evil work even after you disable it. In order to truly defeat it, you have to first clear all the tasks it has "stolen" (while Fast Boot is still enabled), then save and reboot, then quickly disable it before it steals any more tasks. There is more discussion about it in the Latencies thread.

I realize know none of these match your description, I am just throwing some ideas out there

 

Sorry to disappoint, but the very non-technical solution involved asking a friend with the same machine if I could use his USB admin tool and recovery in case I decided to restore / sell the laptop.

Thanks for these suggestions. You were right about the first one, i.e. IRSTRT got reinstalled and was activated. The strange power button behaviour disappeared after I deactivated IRS in EasySettings. I could not find an option to have IRS enabled AND at the same time freely configure what the power button does, so it's turned off for now, and I use the power button (as intended) for superquick sleep mode!

 

LOL

I DO like that solution to the Recovery problem! The only thing I would suggest is to create that Admin Tool soon, while you can. One thing I've learned here is people lose access to Recovery for all kinds of reasons -- it's almost never deliberate. You never know if your friend decides to make some updates or changes to his computer and accidentally loses his Recovery.

And good job solving the sleep issue! I think we're done here, you got it working

 

have any NP300X3E owners here successfully replaced their WiFi cards for an AC card? if so, what is the AC model number that you used and how difficult was the hardware switch?

 

This post and the subsequent discussion is relevant although for the X3B.

John

 

So, with win 8.1 preview coming to a close, I have the option of either:

1. Factory restore + 8.1 upgrade
2. Full clean 8.1 install

As the machine has 256gb I am not too concerned about saving space with a clean install, and would not bother unless it had some benefit to it performance-wise.

That said, is it now safe to fully embrace 8.1 on this model? I am anxious to upgrade! Thanks.

 

I did a clean install of Win 8 and then upgraded to 8.1 and my 900X3E works just fine. Make sure you have the most recent BIOS before you upgrade though. A clean install of Win 8 only takes about 14 GB of space, compared to the ~30GB you waste with a factory restore, so i would definitely go for a clean install, sooner or later you want more storage on a 256 SSD.

 

I think it's still too early to call it safe, but many users managed to get it working -- myself included, on an older Sandy Bridge model that isn't even officially supported for 8.1.

Check the Win 8.1 sticky to get a feeling. There are far more reported issues on models with discrete graphics (Series 5, 7 / AB 5, 6, 7, 8) and far more success stories from models with only integrated graphics (Series 9 / AB9).

Before going ahead with 8.1 (whether by upgrade or clean install), you definitely want to make a Bootable Factory Image Backup in Recovery. Use the first two steps in this post.

We have several reports of 8.1 breaking Recovery (mostly from clean installs) so you want to make this backup BEFORE you proceed.

The question is, which features in 8.1 make it worth the potential risk and hassle? If you don't use a 3rd party Start Menu product, 8.1 has some nice improvements in the layout of the Start Screen and its infamous new Start Button (all the goodies are hidden in Taskbar Properties). Also, the revamped Charms-Settings menu lets you complete more settings tasks in Metro.

On the flip side, 8.1 seems to have more of what I call "Busy Little Bees": Countless background tasks always looking for something to do. I think that's why many users have reported less battery time in 8.1.

 

thanks for the link John.

it'd be great to hear if any ATIV 9 owners have successfully installed an AC card without any headaches or further tweaks needed for bluetooth, etc.

do you know if Samsung's Smart/Easy Setting software is present on the NP300X3E?

 

Settings is a standard package designed to work on all recent Samsung notebooks running Windows 8 / 8.1. (Easy Settings is for Windows 7).

John

 

Hey folks,

I just got an 900X3F G01 which I downgraded to Windows 7... all drivers are installed and running fine except the one for the LTE modem. I am unable to find a suitable driver for the device. I am wondering, if anyone succeeded in setting up the LTE modem under Windows 7?

Joscha

 

Hi Joscha, welcome to NBR.

I just looked up your model in SW Update, and was surprised to find that it didn't have official Win7 drivers. Did you just use Win8 drivers, or did you hunt down OEM drivers from other sources?

Anyways, in SW Update, under model NP900X3F-G01UK, in the Win8 list, there is a Wireless LAN driver -- which upon further inspection appears to be a Qualcomm driver for both Win7 and Win8. See if that one works for your LTE.

 

The LTE device is a so called "Windows Mobile Broadband" device which is a new framework in Windows 8 - I don't think it is possible to get it working on Windows 7

Edit: I might be wrong with Mobile Broadband and no support in Win7, but I remember having read something about a new device type only supported on Win8.

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 7 mit Tapatalk

 

Can anyone with a NP900X3F-G (LTE model) please take an internal picture of the antenna module between the hinges?

Thanks

 

Readers of this thread might be interested in my post on the new LG 13" 980g Notebook @CES.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lg/...0-11-6-win-8-1-tablet-slider-w-keyboards.html

 

Just got this laptop yesterday and it's a very nice upgrade from my 1st generation series 9, the 900X3A. However one thing that is worrying me is battery wear. I've had my X3A for almost 2 years and after all that time battery wear was at 0% according to Battery Bar. Always had battery extender enabled. However my new laptop is just over a day old and battery wear is already at 3.1% according to both Battery Bar and HWINFO, with one charge cycle. Out of the box it was at 1.4% so this jump is a bit alarming. I registered the laptop according on Samsung's website and according to them it was manufactured in May of 2013. I wonder if sitting that long cause some type of issue with the battery, and if anybody else has experienced any similar issues regarding battery wear.

Thanks much.

 

Most batteries are shipped with more than the design capacity and some have a little less, which shows up as wear. Storage shouldn't hurt the battery (it is kept disconnected). I bought an NP900X4C last July which had been made in January (the month is on the label on the bottom) and the battery had about 2% more capacity than the design.

The best thing is for you to run the battery calibration utility in the BIOS. If that still shows wear then you could ask Samsung to replace the battery.

John

 

Well I ran the battery calibration and battery wear has jumped up to 6.5%. What's strange is that before running the calibration it had gone back down to 1.4%. I'll watch it for a week and battery wear continues to act strange I'll just exchange it.

 

Sometimes a second calibration cycle (making sure you start with 100% charge) will clear the reported wear and sometimes it will result in a further increase in the reported wear, so run anther calibration. That you have done the calibration should mean you have no problem getting a replacement.

I would also add that the Haswell-powered NP900X3G is now moving down the production line so I hope that you got your notebook at an attractive price.

John

 

Hmm, I will give this a whirl then and see how it goes. If it continues to have or increases battery wear I'll exchange it.

Aye, got it for less than a 1k US which to me is a good price for a unit of this quality. No telling what Samsung will price the newer units once they reach stateside, and no firm availability date as well.

 

That's a price worth having. The equivalent X3G will be about 50% more.

Unless you can get the wear to drop to zero then I would be pushing for a new battery. There was a bad batch of X3B batteries but few reported battery issues with the newer models.

John