2013 Ativ Book 9 Plus owner's lounge (NP940X3G)

I just received my micro-hdmi to hdmi adapter and direclty connected just the ultrawide monitor. No way to get more than 1920x1080. Also in advanced settings I could not find the possibility to add a custom resolution. Anyone know how to do this?

Thanks!

 

You use a separate app that comes with the Intel driver. Member dhm282 had the same issue and posted his solution based on advice from member gizzmoffm. It is in one of the links I gave you.

 

Thanks and sorry for bugging. These superlong threads are always hard to read and find stuff.

For the wifi-problem: I used a cable mouse these days and all was fine. Today my new bluetooth mouse arrived, in hope that it would work and not give interference to the wifi: booom. Again same thing. I updated to latest intel drivers, nothing. Can it be it is only me?

jamesla

 

I understand. John and I have the advantage of having to read all post coming through, so we know what to search for when locating old discussions. In addition to NBR's Search Thread feature, I use Google a lot with search strings such as this: site:notebookreview.com/samsung Ativ Book 9 intel custom resolution

It is indeed disturbing that the Bluetooth radio would interfere so severely with WiFi. We have had a few reports of it before (as mentioned in our WiFi Remedies thread and also discussed here) but I don't remember anything as dramatic as what you describe.

What happens if you disable Bluetooth AMP on the WiFi Adapter Settings (mentioned in those WiFi links)? I always did that and believe it helps with WiFi performance and stability, but I don't use BT. Also, switching to 5.2GHz band may help getting away from the frequencies that are shared with Bluetooth. I apologize if that was already mentioned

 

Got it to work @40hz doing the following:

Step 1: Run "CustomModeApp". Just push Win+R and enter: CustomModeApp, press OK.

Step 2. Create your resolution (here are the settings for my Dell U2711 on 2560x1440) and click Add:

Asking my self wether it will use more cpu power and make the notebook noisy. we will see..

Thanks Dannemand! Now next thing is the bluethooth..or getting another laptop haha. Displayport would be easier right, what is there..

 

Thank you for sharing that. Did you mean to include a screendump or something to show your settings? Did you have to change the Timing Standard like dhm282?

It is still disappointing that you cannot get to 2560x1440@60Hz, when we know that both the pixel clock and the HDMI port can handle it (despite the official 1920x1080 limitation of Micro-HDMI). And yes, DisplayPort should be standard on any laptop nowadays.

 

I just tried to disable AMP, but no help at all too. What is it btw?
The funny thing is, that the connection goes to limited, it is not like it totally looses the connection. I think I could go on 5ghz but then again, must public wifi networks are 2.4 and this is a mobile laptop i use for travelling.

 

Thats the way I did it. No change at the timing standard. Maybe I should?

 

Thank you.

You could try CVT-RB and see if it lets you go a little higher on the refresh rate. I didn't find any good articles on Wikipedia for CVT-RB, but it reduces the amount of time required for blanking, which is wasted on digital displays. The Vertical Blanking Interval was a necessary timing component with old CRT tubes, in which the cathode ray needed time to retrace to the top after each refresh cycle. Digital display don't need this.

Disclaimer: Although I believe this to be harmless (again, not like on CRTs which could be damaged by incorrect timings) I am not taking any responsibility for the results.

Bluetooth Alternative MAC/ PHY is a Bluetooth v3.0 + HS feature that allows Bluetooth to be used for device discovery and WiFi to be used for the actual data transfer. It makes sense that disabling it wouldn't have any effect if BT is active anyway. In fact, any improvements I see from disabling it on my computer (where I don't use BT) could be just placebo.

And yes, 5.2GHz is of course only an option when that is available. At least it might be an option at home (if it gives you enough range, it doesn't penetrate walls or reach as far). Also, even on 2.4GHz you should test different channels to find the one least affected by the BT interference. inSSIDer is your friend in doing this (Google it).

 

Really appreciate your support, you are being of great help! I managed to get it up to 54 on CVT-RB. Who knows maybe it is also my cable or adaptor. Not sure if it is worth a try to buy new cables.

The wifi i need to see. I already checked wifi channels with an android app, and the signal is strong. But will play a bit tomorrow maybe.

 

While some companies would love to continue selling thousand dollar cables (like analog audio cables of yesteryear) the truth is it is not necessary with HDMI. That said, it is a myth that any HDMI cable is as good as any other just because "it's digital" -- I have experienced that firsthand. Not that picture quality improves incrementally with more expensive cables (as was the case with analog cables) but because better connectors, shielding, core etc may allow a higher bandwidth (resolution x refresh rate) to be driven without errors at a given cable length.

So it cannot be ruled out that another cable would allow you to raise refresh a bit more. But don't spend much. I would go to Monoprice and order their basic HDMI cables. The shorter the better.

You may find that a channel with lower signal strength will work better, if you can get away from the channel(s) used by your Bluetooth. BT can change channel all the time if interference is encountered, while WiFi is fixed at the channel set by your router. Still, maybe your Bluetooth prefers certain channel(s) and will stay there if WiFi is moved to a different channel. But as with 5.2GHz (which is NOT used by Bluetooth) you have no control over channel selection when using public networks, only at home.

 

I searched and I got a little idea of what TPM is used for, but it's not totally clear yet.

Is it useful if I don't have any file to encrypt?
Can it make more secure the 9plus in case it got stolen? (maybe making it unusable by avoiding cracking the password, or something similar)

 

Has anyone been hampered by lack of 16GB RAM?

 

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all the help in this thread!
I just purchased a new NP940X3G-K05CA (i7/8Gig/256) and started reading this thread last night. I have a couple questions that I'm hoping someone here has a solution for (I got through the first 52 pages of the thread and used the search tool but this may be too specific a question).
My unit came installed with Windows 8.1 as well as SW Update V2.1.21.0. When I set up the computer, I allowed Windows to do all it's updates and now I'm looking at SW Update and it is showing 3 software updates and 10 other updates that can be downloaded and applied. However, notice from the Samsung website, a newer Version of SW Update (V2.1.25.4) available for a while. Yet, my SW Update doesn't 'see' it. Is there a reason for this? Do I need to install these updates first in order for the SW Update app to be able to update itself later? OR Do you suggest uninstalling V2.1.21.0 and installing V2.1.25.4?

The other thing is the fan on this unit. It is silent most of the time but a few times every few minutes, I'll hear (not loud but noticeable) it ramp up and down during trivial tasks on the desktop or when the screen saver is on. Very little resources are used in task manager (20% ram and 1% utilization with some 5% spikes) (I noticed I had to set Silent Mode to OFF since using AUTO or LOW caused my computer to reset the Power Profile to Power Saver Mode after every restart). Does this sound like normal behaviour for the fans or should they be silent unless taxed by some larger program (games/video editing etc)?

 

SW Update should indeed update itself to the latest version, I agree it is strange that it doesn't. Admittedly, V2.1.21.0 is also the latest I have (it hasn't updated itself either) but I do see the version V2.1.25.4 you mention on the Download page for your model.

You could try and uninstall it and install the latest version. I will be interested to know if it offers anything the current version doesn't.

We normally give this general SW Update link, since it also contains details of its use.

I will let other owners of this particular model comment on fan behavior. But I want to mention (and applaud you) that you avoided the Silent Mode trapdoor that many (if not most) Samsung owners fall through: You keep it OFF (not on AUTO or LOW) for normal operation, and only enable it when you want low power (slow performance) and hence less fan noise. Fn-F11 is the easiset way to toggle Silent Mode.

Samsung like to do things their own way, not the standard Windows way. The following posts explain how power settings are generally handled on Samsung laptops:

Overview of Samsung Power settings

About Windows Power Profiles (Power Plans)

Silent Mode explained (Win7 but also applies to Win8)

 

hey ppl
im new here just bought my ab9+
my touchpad driver is "dell touchpad" and its not letting me use mutifinger gestures...
any ideas?
tia

 

Hello i have the NP940X3G-K04SE. I had problems with the yellow colour looking like mustard green before, i used the patch (DelCMpatch) that fixed the problem.
Now after upgrading bios version a few days ago, i noticed the yellow colour is back to mustard.. All drivers are up to date, and the DelCMPatch seems to do nothing.

Anyone experienced this, or have any information about this?

Thanks

 

Thank you for your detailed reply and provided links.
After I installed all the updates through SW Update V2.1.21.0, I uninstalled V2.1.21.0 and installed SW Update V2.1.25.4. There really doesn’t seem to be much difference. Cosmetically, the update arrows in the corner of the item icons is different but other than that, no significant change as far as I was able to see. It also didn’t find anything new for me to update. However, there is an update that it says I can update (Windows 8.1 common patch(es) – This includes KB2883200, KB2884846, KB2894029, KB2894179 and KB2896459). This was already downloaded and applied using SW Update V2.1.21.0. For some reason, SW Update V2.1.25.4 is not seeing it as being installed. I may try letting it install but I’ll create a restore point first.
Regarding the fans, I’ve been finding that while using the High Performance (with Display at 50% plugged in with everything else ON or MAX (Adaptive brightness OFF in all areas)) – Power Option, with Samsung Silent Mode set to OFF, the unit stays quiet most of the time when doing nothing. However, I was downloading and installing many updates last night over several (4+) hours over Wireless N and found that the SW Update Client (32bit) was using about 30-33% processor resource in Task Manager. This is when the fans really started to spool up and the laptop was getting warm (left and right side of keyboard area and underneath). During the downloads, processor speeds where going from about 2.6-2.9 Ghz. When the download stopped, the processor speed would come down to 1.3-1.4Ghz and the fans would immediately relax and slow down to silent levels.
I experimented with Samsung Settings and tried LOW (under Silent) and this caused my Power Option to be changed to Power Saver. I edited the Power Saver profile to force all settings to MAX and No power savings including no Processor power management ie. Min/Max processor state at 100%. What I found was that during downloading updates using SW Update Client, the system was quieter but slower and the processor was being throttled back due to heat. Looking at Task Manager showed that the processor speed was only hovering around 0.7Ghz. Even selecting High Performance power option didn’t change the speed of the processor that Task Manager was reporting. As soon as I changed the Samsung Settings to Silent Mode OFF, the processor speed immediately jumped back up to 2.6-2.9Ghz and the download sped up along with the fans. I’ll keep experimenting to find a happy medium of Max performance/fans.
On a final note, for some reason screen savers (the Samsung one and even some of the base MS ones) seem to create more processor heat than I would have thought as the fans almost always turn up after a while (10+ minutes after the laptop is already warm). This happens to my daughter’s ACER S7-392 (with the i7-4500U) as well and that unit is usually very silent until the screen saver has been on for some time. I’ve since gone to a blank screen and that seems to work out.
Thanks again for all the help!

 

Thank you for testing this and reporting back. Seeing that it doesn't provide anything new, I will not stay awake these coming nights, then, wondering what I might be missing by not updating my SW Update

Yes, Silent Mode throttles at 800MHz. You can tweak the Power Saver profile all you wan't (or even switch to a different profile) it won't change that. Some members have used ThrottleStop to crack it. Personally I use Silent Mode (toggling Fn-F11) only when I want to stretch my battery time.

I highly recommend you stay with the Samsung Optimized profile as the default, then let Silent Mode switch to Power Saver and back. High Performance needlessly keeps the CPU at 100% all the time, even when it is not needed, using more power and producing more heat -- with only a small performance gain. You can tweak Samsung Optimized if you want.

Those links really cover all this

 

Thanks, I'll try doing that. I notice that Fn-F11 not only changes to Silent Mode but that Adaptive Brightness is re-enabled as well. But I guess if your trying to save battery drain, that would help.

Thanks again

 

This is just a reflection of the fact that Adaptive Brightness (and actual brightness) is saved independently with each power profile, so you have to set them independently for normal mode and Silent Mode. You will also find that if you ever update or re-install Samsung Settings (Easy Settings in Win7) your Adaptive Brightness and other power tweaks will have to be made again, because those profiles are re-installed.

You just ran into the two rites of passage for owners of Samsung laptops.

 

hmm,,, have you terminated current SW Update and restarted? try reboot system once again and follow my advice.
as i know, definitely new version V2.1.25.4 would be listed-up, but if things doesn't go well, go to Samsung.com, download
SW update installation file and update. hope it helps.

 

Yes, I found that out several times when updating and installing Samsung Settings. Even custom profiles are gone after that. I've written all my settings down now for quick reference.
Rites of Passage is about right! lol

 

Please see post #1218. I tried many program terminations, reboots, shutdowns and restarts to no avail. It simply could/would not detect a newer version of SW Update being available. I uninstalled it and installed the latest version from the website.

 

Nobody have this problem?

 

I've got the latest BIOS and mine looks okay I think. Here's my laptop next to my iPad. Laptop is on battery power.

 

Gentleman, how are you doing?!!

First of all, I am very sorry if what am I going to ask is repeated (I have tried several things, and foruns but no solution, whatsoever).

I am own a Samsung NP940X3G k06US.

It came with the windows 8.1

But hte thing was that the keyboad backlit did not work. Tried to restore, clean install but nothing. Tried to use samsung drivers update, and nothing, tried driver pack solution, and nothing.

I do not know what else to do..

Besides on windows 8, google chrome looked like (very low res).

Then I switched to windows 7.

Installed every driver from Samsung Update. (except Intel ME Interface Driver which fails at both OS).

So far the keyboard backlit does not work either. (but was not working on windows 8).

And the touchpad is missing double finger scroll.

So folks, what should I do in order to get the laptop fully working?!

Thanks

 

Sounds broken. I'd send it back.

 

I agree. Don't spend more time on this unit until the hardware is fixed.

 

Would it be possible just to replace the keyboard ?? (Because the Samsung was bought in Amazon.com and I live here in Brazil).

Thanks

 

Is there a version of this laptop with the current i7 specs that is NOT touchscreen? I use this laptop for work, and never use the touchscreen. And would greatly prefer a matte screen....

 

You need to look at the NP900X3G. However, it hasn't been released everywhere.

John

 

I'm looking for a laptop that stays cool to the touch. Some reviews say this laptop stays exceptionally cool, others say it heats up.
I'll mainly be using this laptop in my lap for extended amounts of time web browsing; does the bottom get warm when performing this task?
I want a laptop that doesn't make my legs sweat <_<

 

Compared to Macbook Air, AB9+ definitely gets louder and hotter.

I think one big factor is the HIDPI support isn't good on Chrome/Firefox.

On Internet Explorer, the machine does not generate that much heat as CPU utilization stays relatively low.
But Chrome/Firefox aren't optimized enough and thus use considerably more CPU.

Limiting the CPU to 65% helps a bit, but not enough.

 

If I want to watch movies on this on a 10 hour flight, would the battery last for most of it?

 

nope. since you are on a flight, even assuming the backlight is at minimum, it won't last 10 hours.

 

Well, after downloading and installing SW Update V2.1.25.4 from the website, it didn’t find anything new to update for that day and several reboots and rescans. So for a few days I’ve been using this computer and not checking my SW Update until today (I check it manually). It found a new update today… Samsung Settings V2.2.0.15 (71.0 MB). I’m unable to use the ‘Save Setup Files’ to save this version. The only option I have is to use ‘Update’. I'll try and update it later tonight or tomorrow and see if there is anything new with this version.

The other thing I’ve been experimenting with is the Samsung Recovery software. When I look at the option for exporting the Factory Image to another storage device, I notice on my particular computer (NP940X3G-K05CA) that the space required is 11.4GB. I have used a 16GB Lexar USB 2.0 device and performed the backup with ‘Create Boot Disk’ option selected. I have also tried and successfully transferred the same data using a Kingston 32GB USB 3.0 device (Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3) with the same settings and results but faster. I also tried with a Kingston 16GB USB 3.0 device (Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3) with the same results. I’ve read that USB 3.0 devices may not work, however, on my particular unit and using this particular USB 3.0 device, it seems to work fine. I used the Windows Samsung Recovery version as opposed to the F4 option to create these. I’ve tested both units to ensure that I’m able to boot (F10) from both of these devices with the Recovery Image and it all seems to work right up to the step that I just click Recover. I have not performed the actual step of Recovering from the USB image but all signs point to it working. I also created a Backup image of my current C: drive on a portable USB Hard Drive as well as a Clone image on another portable USB Hard Drive.

 

Thanks a lot for testing these things and reporting back.

You are correct that the USB3 (in)compatiblity of Samsung Recovery is a not a hard and fast rule. Thank you for confirming that. But we had some members reporting it. And since USB2 sticks are also more likely to be of the good old Removable Drive type, while USB3 sticks have a higher "risk" of being the new Fixed Disk type (which causes corrupt backups when used with Create Boot Disk) I decided to recommend USB2 in this backup guide -- even though some USB3 drives may work just fine.

Also great to know that a 16GB flash drive is sufficient with this model. Someone should create a table one day of which drives are required for which models (he said, looking into the mirror )

With those backups in hand that you made (a bootable factory image on a USB stick AND a non-bootable one on a regular external disk) you should be able to safely delete your SAMSUNG_REC2 partition (the bigger of the two Recovery partitions) and reclaim the space for other uses. You will still be able to F4 boot Recovery and perform backups or factory restore from the external disk; and if all fails, you can completely re-image the drive using that USB stick.

Thanks again!

 

Thanks for the Backup links. I've read them several times now and have a few questions just to clarify...

If I have a Current State Backup on a portable USB hard drive as well as the USB Stick with Samsung Recovery Image... In a restore situation (assuming I've deleted the SAMSUNG_REC2 partition), do I boot F10 with the USB Stick and restore the factory image using that AND then once booted into Windows, restore my Current State Backup using the portable USB hard drive? OR can this second step be done within the Restore screen at F10 Boot using the USB Stick (with Factory Image) as well as the USB hard drive with my current Windows state.

Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason that using programs such as Acronis Disk Image or Norton Ghost do not work? They should be able to create an image of your current drive state and I'm wondering if it can be recognized by the sytem during the F10 boot to restore the image.

Thanks once again, for all your help!

 

Great questions.

1) The USB stick with the Bootable Factory Image Backup is a self-contained "Recovery on a stick" containing the factory image. It is booted with F10 and will re-image the entire drive to factory state, including working Recovery (with the factory image) and factory Windows installation. That is all it does.

2) I don't know much about bootable SRS state backups since we don't have many reports about them. I assume they only restore the Windows partition state (not the full disk). And maybe they can restore backups stored on other drives. It would be great if you find out and can post it.

3) The way to boot SRS directly from the main disk is by pressing F4 at boot. The Samsung Recovery Windows app is just a front-end -- you can uninstall it if you want. Booting F4 will load the Recovery software stored on the small SAMSUNG_REC Recovery partition. It will look for a factory image on the large SAMSUNG_REC2 partition, but even without it, it can restore images from external drives. No USB stick needed.

4) Those lovely partition image backups that we're all used to making of new factory drives (using Acronis, Paragon, Ghost, etc) generally will NOT properly restore Recovery on Samsung laptops. You can make the backup all right, but once you restore it, you will usually find that you cannot F4 Boot Recovery any longer, nor access it using the Samsung Recovery Windows app. It's a quirky thing with Samsung Recovery Solution: It relies on an F4 link hidden in the partition table, which most partition editing and backup tools lose when they restore partitions or update the table. Once it is lost, it is almost impossible to re-create working Recovery on a disk without a bootable factory image backup (like you have) or a so-called Admin Tool -- both of which must be created in Recovery while it is still working. This post has some overview of that for both SRS5 and SRS6.

The exception to this is member go45cvi who managed to clone his factory SSD using Clonezilla and preserved working Recovery. When I tried that (long time ago) it didn't work, but it may have improved since. Note that you must clone the entire SSD with Clonezilla (not just the Recovery partitions) in order to preserve the F4 link in the partition table.

 

Thank you so very much for all of your clear and well written explanations!

 

up

 

It is a security feature and helps Bitlocker.

See here for more details.

John

 

Ok, but if I wouldn't mind about my files (I have no very private file on my pc) but I would like to make the computer totally unusable if stolen (even if they switch the ssd) is there a way to do it?

Does the "sealing" work that way?

 

The easiest way to do that is with a password in the BIOS (but don't forget it yourself!).

You can get to the BIOS setup either via the Charms bar or by tapping F2 a few times immediately after turning on / rebooting the computer.

John

 

Can I please get help with a suitable m.2 SATA to USB adapter.

I am having a hell of a time finding one that is the '2 key' variety. Currently working in Germany and need this ASAP.

I already have the Crucial M550 in my hand....

How would I go about doing a complete copy of my Samsung 128GB to the M550:

1) m.2 SATA Adaptor

or

2) Back up Clonezilla to an HDD, install M550, boot from HDD and finally clone HDD to M550?

 

I can't find a direct M.2 to USB 3.0 adapter so the work-around is M.2 to 2.5" such as this + 2.5" to USB (preferably USB 3.0).

John

 

That is m.2 PCIe... 1 key / notch.

It does not work with an m.2 SATA

 

This post sums up the four options you have to get software onto the new SSD. It depends on your needs (do you want Recovery on the new SSD, do you need to preserve current installation and data) and which gadgets you have (adapter and/or USB flash drive).

If you have a suitable USB flash drive, you can use Samsung Recovery to re-create the factory installation on the new SSD, even without an adapter. That's one of the four options, and described in this post.

Edit: Also, posts in this thread from the last few days contain relevant information.

 

For this option the correct progression is:

1. Boot clonezilla using either external cd drive or tuxboot thumbdrive
2. When prompted attach external HD to store the image (not clonezilla itself)
3. Choose the save disk option
4. Wait while it copies
5. Shutdown, uninstall factory SSD, install crucial
6. Boot clonezilla again
7. Restore image to new disk
8. Restart and test F4 link works (it should)
9. Boot windows and modify partitions as needed