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

1) Want Recovery
2) Want to preserve
3) DONT have an adapter ... have 256gb usb 3.0 and a 500 gb HDD

all current data

 

Cloning with Samsung Recovery (booting F4) is your best option in that case (which preserves Recovery as well as the current installation and data). But it requires an adapter.

You could try creating a full disk image with Clonezilla onto an external disk. It worked for one member. But don't use any other cloning or imaging tool OR image individual partitions (instead of the entire disk) if you want to preserve Recovery.

You could also use option (3) in the post I linked to re-create factory partitions on the new SSD (including Recovery), but make a separate backup of your Windows partition and data first, then restore them after the new disk is up and running.

Edit: Oops, I didn't notice go45cvi had already responded. Yes, you can try that with Clonezilla.

 

Are you sure it is PCIe? It The adapter is for an 2.5" SATA interface. An M.2 SSD with two notices would fit into a socket with one notch.

This adapter appears to have the same socket but claims compatibility with the Crucial M500.

John

 

I can confirm what John is pointing out here. Just because it has only one notch does not mean it won't accept the SATA "two notch" variant - they are pin compatible and the PCIe variant just has a few pins where the 2nd SATA notch is located. I used a very similar 2.5" SATA to m.2 adapter to clone to my Crucial m.2 drive.

 

Hey Step666,

I noticed you had upgraded your SSD to the Crucial M500! Amazon.com: Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gbps M.2 Internal SSD [Crucial PN: CT240M500SSD4]: Computers & Accessories I suppose?

How was the replacement process for you. Aka any issues? Also has this had any impact on battery or anything else?
If you could offer your experience I would really appreciate it! Thank you.

 

Yep, that's the one.

It's a doddle to swap out, couldn't be simpler.

I'm afraid I can't really offer any insight into the impact on battery life as a) I installed Win7 onto the M500 as opposed to Win8, so any impact on battery life caused by changing the SSD would be impossible to confirm; also b) I didn't use the laptop much before switching to Win7 (hate Win8, atrocious OS) so I don't actually know if there is actually any significant difference.
All I can say is that the battery life is very decent for my current set-up.

 

Thanks a lot. You've sealed the deal, I think I'm ordering the laptop tonight.

 

I recommend the newer M550 Crucial drives, which replace their M500 line and I believe have dropped below or close to the M500 in price. (I do see that the newer drives seem to be out of stock everyone I saw, unfortunately, though)). You will likely experience a slight hit in power consumption, or so I did. It is an easy swap, but you need to consider how you want your new drive set up. Cloning the Samsung recovery can be hit or miss. I just cloned a bare Win 8.1 install and then restored Win 8.1 on the new M550 drive from a recovery USB thumb drive.

From what I have seen, the power hit is due to the fact that Samsung has a modified AHCI driver that optimizes the factory SSD, but this new driver is not at all optimized for the Crucial drive. So, using the latest AHCI driver from Intel (12.9.0.1001) (download here) produced power performance similar to the factory SSD using that same driver. The latest Samsung optimized driver (12.9.3.1000) improves power for the factory SSD, but worsens it for the Crucial drive. So, I recommend avoiding downloading the AHCI driver through Samsung SW Update and only install the driver from Intel.

 

Recently bought this computer, beautiful machine.

But it came with windows 8 installed, and I am having major issues updating to 8.1. I have used SW update(which looks different than it shows on samsung's site) to download(export) then run each driver. I am getting boot errors, and having to restore back into Windows 8. Any advice would be appreciated.
thanks

 

Interesting, I have an M500 and it's also power hungry. I'll have to check which AHCI driver I have.

 

Hi guyz, i've got a problem.

Just installed Windows 7, all works fine, but some strange behavior with touchscreen. If i slightly close the lid, so around 80°, i hear sound, like one if hardware was removed (usb stick) and message from windows that some of USB hardware works inappropriate and touch doesn't work anymore. If i open the lid again, it works like a charm. On Windows 8 worked okay, so far i remind, but definitely i had no removed hardware sound.

Is that known problem on windows7?

BTW: The "Settings" App don not have any controls to disable or enable the Touch. Idea?

 

FYI, there are a few more updates available through SW Update (using SW Update V2.1.21.0 with NP940X3G-K05CA).

SW Update – V2.1.26.2
Settings – V2.2.0.15
Intel ME Interface Driver - V9.5.24.1790 (67.0MB)
Sound Driver – V6.0.1.7218 (574 MB)
Graphics Driver – V10.18.10.3412 (407 MB)
Color Engine – V1.0.0.18 (7.89 MB)
System Optimization Service – V1.0.0.7 (7.23 MB)
More Windows 8.1 Common Patches (52.7 MB)

 

Hi everyone, I've recently purchased a ATIV Book 9 Plus (i5 model) and noticed that the idle generally sits around 60 when unplugged, but can sporadically (seemingly) jumps up to 75C causing the fans to be unpleasant, when plugged it gets even hotter. Even as I was typing this message the heat kicked up to 70C for a good 10 seconds and went back down to around 60C. Is this normal? What temps has everyone else been experiencing? Thanks.

 

During short-term normal use, mine usually runs at about 58C, plugged in or not, with a max of about 69C when performing spreadsheet operations - I don't get any spikes that you report. I wonder if you have processes running in the background.

 

I also suspect a background process as being the likely cause.

You can try to identify the culprit using the % CPU usage in Task Manager when the fans come on. 25% usage represents one thread at 100% utilisation.

John

 

Hey guys,

I recently bought the 940x3g K01 model and have several problems in respect to fan noise.

I have read some posts in this thread and some people claim that the notebook is completely silent during both web-browsing and streaming videos. This is absolutely not the case with my model. Sometimes during web-browsing the fans are not running but kick in after reaching a temperature of 55C (which is reached very fast). Moreover, streaming videos is practically impossible without running fans - they are clearly (and annoyingly) audible.

1. Is this a problem with my unit or have some other owners made similar experiences?
2. What I find most disturbing is that the fans sometimes do not start running slowly and then increase speed, but sometimes kick in with pretty high RPM rates only for a a few seconds...even during standard multi-tab browsing. This is really annoying. Any Idea how to change that? ( I do not and don´t want to use the silent mode - I tried but it does only work for a few minutes)
3. Does anyone know if there are ways to adust the fan behavior? NotebookFanControl does not have a config file for the model. I already updated settings and the bios with no effects.
4. I might also be too serious about fan issues, but I expect a laptop of this price category to be silent during browsing and streaming. I would not mind if the fans kick in during heavy load such as gaming or video editing....
5. If there is no solution: any recommendations for more quiet ultrabooks?

Thanks!
Chris

 

1. i have similar fan behaviors as yours. more specifically, while plugged in, fan starts to kick in at 55'C; while unplugged, at around 58'C.

2. indeed that is disturbing. i can understand that the fan may need to constantly run to cool down, but when the laptop's temp is maintained at around 53-58, it constantly goes on at full for a few seconds and then off after a few minutes. endless loop/cycle. driving me nuts.

3. not that i know of. i've looked into but samsung does weird stuff with the fan.

4. so far, used macbook air and retina macbook pro; np940x3g is louder and gets hotter.

5. if you use any browser other than internet explorer, the scrolling makes the cpu to spike up and thus temp and thus fan noise: I've tried chrome, firefox, and a few others. with internet explorer, the fan stays relatively quite while browsing the web, as the temp is just under 55'C. with other browers, expect it to go beyond 60'C fairly often and accompanying fan noise. alternatively, i suggest you to limit the max cpu utilization to 65 to 70. while a compromise in performance, it does help the fan to stay quieter.

 

Hi guys,

I need your help ASAP, as my return option expires in 4 days.
I bought Ativ Book 9 Plus two days ago and started testing it out. Everything works perfectly and it's just so insanely beautiful device. There is only one glitch: my keyboard backlight doesn't work. I've read literally hundreds of thread page and I haven't found the same issue. Some users had problems with their function keys F9 and F10 not responding, i.e. not changing backlght brightness, but they did have the light. Ubuntu users also had many troubles, but I have Windows 8.1 installed so it's not helping as well. My problem is different, as my FN+F9/F10 command is working perfectly. As I go to General Settings I can see how the brightness level is adjusted accordingly, but the actual keyboard doesn't show any response, it just stays dark. I've heard that it might be a software issue, but I've installed all new Bios and other updates. I also read that the reason behind this could be the adaptive backlight sensor which is supposed to activate when the surrounding light gets dim enough. A friend who had ativ book 6 said that he had a problem when he would change from the well lightened room to the dark one, as his sensors took almost one hour to adapt and activate the backlight. In the end he went to repair shop and had his sensor removed so he can activate backlight whenever he wanted. I've checked all kinds of settings, but adaptive backlight sensor is not adjustable. I really don't know what to do. My laptop runs perfectly, there are no Wi-Fi nor greenish yellow issues. Machine seems perfect and I don't think this is a hardware glitch, but rather some software update or something similar. I would greatly appreciate if someone could help me with this as I'm running out of ideas and, more importantly, time.

Thanks in advance guys
Uros

 

On my NP900X4C I covered over the light sensor with a small piece of black tape so the computer thinks it is in permanent darkness and hence I have full manual control.

John

 

Wow those temps are high for idle.

Mine which I am typing on right now idles at 36C
Fans only come on when I am gaming. Not on youtube or web browsing and this notebook is super super quiet.
I have to put my ear to the back to even hear the fan noise when gaming.

My Fn F9 and F10 definitely work to adjust keyboard backlite.
Hope this helps

 

Thanks guys for your prompt responses.
So none of you had the same problem as me, your keyboard bakcklight worked perfectly and responsively from the beginning? John, you've covered the sensor cause it wasn't working properly or you just wanted full control of your backlight? Sorry for being a nuisance, but I'm worried since I haven't been able to start the backlight at all.

 

The sensor would only turn on the backlight under fairly dim lighting but I find that the backlighting improves the key lettering legibility under moderate lighting as well.

Anyway, for you the test is whether the backlighting shows any sign of life if you cover the sensor. If not, then maybe the backlighting is broken and you need to contact Samsung about getting it fixed under warranty (but be forewarned that they will probably want you to reload the factory image of Windows to confirm it is not a software fault).

John

 

Hi all,
I wish to buy this laptop (probably 4GB / 128GB), and I am completely bumbed that I missed the Microsoft Store sale of those for 899$
anyone has an opinion of best way to buy it? as a student and subscribing my mobile i reached 1150$ for 8GB/128GB at microsoft store, but I wish for a better price...
Cheers!

 

Hey guys just ordered 3 of these since I got eBay bucks 4x came out to 763 for new open box really trying to debate if I will keep them or sell. I have a vizio ct14 a0 i3 3217u with 256 msata evo. Ivy vs has well in ulv is not really much difference main reason would be the screen and trackpad have to be amazing because I got my vizios around 200 on eBay.

Is the fan noise bad because I hate any noise I work in very quiet room. And any chance my Samsung evo msata could work

 

I have no problem with fan noise.This is a great product. I have been using one for 6 months as my business laptop. It get's a lot of use and is running for at least 10hrs per day.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

Nope. You need mpcie.

 

Not mpcie, m.2 sata ssd. Please see the photos I uploaded many pages ago.

 

To those who installed Windows 7, have you had any issues? Got mine Tuesday (4gb/128gb/i5) but I can not stand Windows 8. I see samsung offers drivers for win 7 but does everything still function the same? ie: touchscreen, keyboard backlight, mouse, etc. Thanks.

 

Why aren't you guys who dislike Win 8 just installing Classic Shell (Free) or Start8 (5$)? Both remove 99% of the Metro UI and you still get the advantages of Windows 8 (driver support, task manager, explorer, etc).

 

I agree Matthias. I am a Windows 7 fan, but I now also love the speed of Windows 8.1, after tweaking it to look like Windows 7 (thanks ClassicShell and Windows 8.1 desktop options). I never see any of the tiles or modern apps .

 

No offense and this is not directed at you but installing windows 7 is pointless unless you have some app that just won't run in windows 8.1. Guys if you just add back the start button you never have to see metro and lets not forget this is a touchscreen what are you going to touch on windows 7 at 3200x1800. I just got mine today from ebay open box and I will admit it came with nothing and did not work well but I do a clean install anyway went with 8.1 pro since I have TechNet keys installed all the drivers and most important I use startisback and it operates exactly the same as windows 7 plus all the new features. Now I know this is a matter of opinion but as an IT guy I feel I can even prove it is pointless to go back as this is a cutting edge laptop why stress going backwards.

For those that already own this my last two issues since I installed clean did your Samsung ativ come with fn application to adjust things because I have to hold fn which I hate is there like an app for that. And I use rdp a lot at high dpi I can't get it to work right anyone found a fix for that. Other than those two things this thing is amazing. Today they had MacBook pro retina 13 for 999 brand new if I had seen that first before this I might of got it since I had 4x ebay bucks.

 

I didn't know those exsisted. Never used Win 8 till a few days ago. Thanks guys! Having it set so it goes straight to desktop along with the ClassicShell start menu. Much easier to use!

 

I cannot find the source of the issue. The laptop is brand new and has very few programs installed. I notice that the heat especially increases when a browser is opened.

I'd really like to figure out the problem, do you have any other suggestions? Thanks!

 

Greetings everyone

I have a few questions I have the 9 plus 4GB model and when I tried to update to windows 8.1 I get this error message "Your Windows 8.1 install couldn't be completed Something happened and the install of Windows 8.1 can't be completed" also while on the start screen my screen keeps flicking on it's own as if I using the touch screen but only for like a minute or two why is that

Thanks in advance

 

EDIT: Since I wrote this rather epic post I have figured many of my problems out, received some advice here on a few and - very mysteriously!! - the most important problem I was having, with scaling on Firefox only just went away!! I actually resigned myself to using IE (for the first time ever!) for the time being and see if I could live with it. Well, in the process of importing my bookmarks from FF (literally, 7 years' worth!) I noticed on FF that I was seeing icons that had been invisible and then I went to some web sites - including NBR - that were pretty much unreadable - and everything was, well, normal!

I decided to leave the post as I wrote it earlier today with EDIT notes for everything I since worked out partially, and indicating that which is still problematic. So if you're interested in providing some assistance not only to me but to other new owners, who may encounter the same issues, it would be great if you could skim both my original questions and my edits showing what I resolved and what remained problematic. And, of course, I would be very comforted by anyone who can explain the TOTAL MYSTERY of my Firefox scaling disaster that seemed to just right itself! Anyway, thanks as ever for your valuable time and coaching. I love this computer now, as I expected to, but it is definitely not something to take out of the box and go to work with. All the best, Jeff Bellin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all. Been a lurker on this thread -and, since inception, it's predecessor for the Ivy Bridge, 1600x900, which I owned for 30 days and returned for the sole reason - call me petty if you wish - that the model had an extremely cheap feeling - and sounding! - space bar. It was truly distractingly noisy for me and those around me and at the time, this was an even more relatively expensive laptop compared to alternatives than it is today.

But enough of history! Last week, when I was only "window shopping," no needs, I scooped up a phenomenal deal on an open box NP940X3G-US05 - i7, 8GB, 256GB, $1,025, no tax, no shipping cost! (see below for how I got such a great deal, if you're interested***). I love the machine (who wouldn't?) in virtually every respect, but am having one big problem and a couple of more minor questions for the experts on this thread. Note: I did read the whole thread and found my questions talked about but not really "solved."

EDIT: Issue #1, below, dealing with scaling seems to have FIXED ITSELF!!! I can't explain this and, though I'm entirely delighted, it's a little disconcerting that on a recent reboot, everything suddenly became normal in Firefox for the first time, I think, since I got this computer the other day. I will provide further update on a new post, below, but I would still appreciate it if you understand the scaling issues on this computer well if you can provide any explanation at all that will at least make me less uncomfortable that I am not really in control of my computer!

1) Scaling: , primarily with Firefox. No problems with IE and most apps and I don't use Chrome, but disappointing and frustrating problems with Firefox, long my preferred browser and the one with so much accumulated history, book marks and some phenomenal exclusive add-ons, I'd just hate not to use it. No matter what combo of resolution and scaling I use, the output in FF is abysmal. EG, in NBR, can't get see Poster icons and even text on left with poster info is all misaligned, I get run-on and even double-rendered text at bottom of each post (where you choose response format options), also overlapping text in the NBR sidebars showing newest and most popular threads. NBR isn't the only site with problems for me. On main Google search page it won't show the Google icon, just some clickable text about the theme of the day's picture. Some sites, like Google News, render just fine. Oh, and, most annoyingly, on the Google search page the nine option Google apps icon is invisible! If I click where it should be, I get a text-only list of the 9 apps (eg, News, Maps, YouTube, etc.) I've tried all the resolution/scaling options on Windows as well as a number of FF add-ons, such as "no squint" and others that adjust scaling (all of which worked perfectly on a QHD screen I was using on an HP Spectre 13T recently). I've seen lots of comments in this thread recommending FF as the best browser to use for proper scaling - and one post that suggests a change in the parameter of one registry item which I used, and it changed nothing!

Thoughts, suggestions? This is almost a deal-breaker for me, but posts suggest people are not having these problems.

***the rest are much shorter, also less important***

EDIT: I have since been advised that it takes quite a few cycles for the battery capacity reading to be accurate. If anyone has other thoughts about this - especially any way to accelerate the process of getting the battery data to read accurately - I would appreciate it.

2) Battery shows 95.1% capacity on both Battery Bar and BatteryInfo View (a great alternative if you don't know it). Otherwise battery performs very well, similar to reported results throughout this thread). I tried "calibrating" (run down to 0%, charge to 100%, back to 0%, back to 100%) though I'm not sure that's even useful for lithium ion. Any thoughts? Might Samsung replace this under wtty? Could it just be a defective battery that began life 5% down but otherwise will slowly lose the rest of its capacity at the normal rate? (the latter being the "don't worry, don't do anything" approach!)

EDIT: This is no longer a problem in need of help! I learned (by my own research) that you have to actually download the Samsung program, "SW Update" for this to work. (Why it doesn't come pre-installed, I can't imagine!) I did so and it showed 5 updates available - from BIOS update, to trackpad driver update, Intel chipet update, and a few others. I ran the updates and little changed but it was clear these were appropriate updates considering this computer was manufactured on 11/30/13. Some have suggested I now delete the SW Update program as it gives annoying reminders and, after bringing things current, there is little that Samsung offers that one doesn't do better using mfr drivers, eg, Intel, etc. Do all agree?

3) I can't seem to get Samsung software update (which I assume does drivers too) to work right. When I go to it all it will show are problems with my printer drivers (with no help fixing them!) but my understanding is that this is the one and only way to receive Samsung-specific driver updates. Thoughts?

EDIT: This is still something of an open issue. There was an update (see previous item) for the trackpad control panel and it seems to keep things more stable between boot ups. Curiously, it also removed the Reverse option for two finger scrolling. That option was one that kept resetting to default, which is the Apple-style - drag fingers down and display scrolls up. I hate that and I kept changing it back to uncheck Reverse scroll. Now there is no Reverse setting, which would be great, but it is now set to default to Reverse scroll all the time! If anyone knows how to fix this, I would be grateful!

4) The trackpad settings (using "Mouse" on windows Control Panel or Fn/F1 on keyboard) often revert to default, particularly when I reboot or reset scaling settings. For example, I keep unchecking Reverse scroll and it keeps re-checking it. I don't see a way to "save" or "apply" changes to trackpad settings. I make adjustments to the settings and just close the window. As long as I don't re-boot or sign user out then back in, the settings stay, otherwise they keep reverting to defaults. Ideas?

That's all folks (source: Bugs Bunny ) The scaling problems with Firefox are my main concern. They are close to being a deal breaker! If anyone knows how to get bookmarks and history from FF over to IE that might be a workaround I could live with. At least IE has Adblock, by far the most important add-on I must have.

Finally, if I can't resolve the FF issues and decide not to keep this (hard to imagine I would, especially for such a great machine at such a steal of a price) ,I have 2 more weeks to return for 100% refund. Could I get a great deal more for it on eBay or even NBR Marketplace? Are there any on this thread who would like a crack at it? If so, PM me and we can discuss based on contingency that I do decide not to keep, first come, first served - clearly not looking to be a profiteer from NBR Samsung thread buddies .

EDIT: Sorry, it doesn't look like this little gem will be leaving my clutches anytime soon If/when it does, for any reason, I will offer it to folks on this thread (and their friends and family) before I list it on eBay or even NBR Marketplace.

Many thanks - especially for reading through this!
Sincerely,
Jeff Bellin


EDIT: This is still useful info if you want to learn about an excellent source of current or last-year model new or open box items at very low prices with very liberal return policies and generally a friendly company with nice support people and easy access to executives if you have a problem.
***************************************************************************************************************************************
The story of a great deal and a great Clearance reseller to know about!! (read or skip, depending on your interest level!)
****************************************************************************************************************************************
**My deal, great source to know about, what I learned about the market for 9 Plus models right now: If you are shopping and patient, the range of prices for this model - especially open box versions - is huge. For my unit, top configuration, I found new prices ranging from $1,400 to $1,799, mostly towards the higher. For open box units, I found prices ranging from [spoiler alert: my cost coming up!]...I found prices from $1,600 on the high side to...[drum roll]...$1,025 for mine! Part of my good fortune came from a good relationship with the reseller - Blinq.com - who gets some great deals - eg, buyin MS Store open box inventory - and often has very fair prices, combined with that, I can usually negotiate up to 10% additional discount and this time I do have a battery which reads that 4% of its capacity is used (not possible from actual use, no question this unit was opened, possibly - but more likely not - taken out, plugged in and tested, then returned without so much as the power brick or cord being touched and the computer sparkling new), and they agreed to take an additional 125 off for that. Just to re-emphasize, I strongly advise people to make a stop at Blinq.com weekly and seeking whatever you're hunting for on it a must. All their products have unconditional 30-day 100% refund and they will work with you on price, extending return windows, etc. Good people; I've gotten to know the owner and that has guaranteed me awesome prices and support, but they do that anyway.

 

If the battery is still new, it may take a few cycles for it to reach full capacity. I would check the wear level in hwinfo, if it hits 20% you should be able to request samsung replace it if it's under 1 year old (check the system date in the bios). Personally, I would use the find model function in software update to download a few requisite drivers (settings application, bluetooth, touchpad) then remove the application and its annoying pop ups. It's probably just as well to get the latest graphics, wifi drivers from intel directly and once everything's working I don't know if there's much point in updating. With those exceptions aside, I find the built-in W8 drivers to be perfectly fine and devoid of bloat.

 

Thanks for that good advice on rhe battery and drivers. You wouldn't have an equal bit of wisdom on my FF scaling issue, would you?

 

I also bought 3 from blinq and I had 4x eBay bucks so was 863 with 100 off so 763 total came in used box but inside was mint. The only issue was game clean install of windows 8 but not from Samsung because it was bare I don't know but no software was installed. I am a IT guy so at first how it came was very buggy once I clean install windows 8.1 pro did Samsung updates it was amazing. Found solutions for remote desktop and now I see why having a touchscreen laptop or just a premium laptop is worth it.

I have been using a vizio ct14 for past two years I buy them so cheap on eBay and thought no need to upgrade but this screen makes it worth it I love it. So selling vizios for more than paid plus maybe spend 300 in the whole process. My biggest gripe was upgrading would mess up my desk space since I have all silver monitors vizio TVs and PC didn't want to break that up. I originally bought the ativs to sell for 900 or more but once I used it backlit keys, amazing trackpad, and that screen I said screw it. And once my girlfriend saw it she also has the vizio she wanted one too.

And last I thought has well was not really a difference from ivy in the ulv space but seems a lot faster. I know I had an i3 but I used to i5 and i7 vizios and I chose i3 for better battery less fan noise. If Samsung made this a little it bigger, more black instead of blue, full HDMI, white backlights , and no Samsung branding I would give this a flawless victory 10/10 but it is damn near perfect for me. Maybe its fate because if the macbook pro retina for 999 brand new deal hit Tuesday instead of this I might be a Mac user at this point. I never owned a Mac but 899 since I had eBay 4x bucks I would of bought them instead.

 

Well said. I think the Blinq models were MS Store returns and perhaps MS was a bit overzealous in removing "bloatware," which in some cases was needed software. I finally got to the same place as you without doing a clean install (alas, I am not an IT guy ;/) and now I own the most awesome laptop after having the very best premium ultrportables over the past 5 years.

Coupla questions: 1) how does one get 4x eBay bucks and how did you get an additional $100 off? Are yours the top configs? Makes me feel like a chump for paying a net $1,025 with some 20 eBay bucks! 2) Are your batteries reading 100%? Any thoughts on why mind is reading 95.1% when clearly this unit was never used? 3) Now that some of my peeves have simply righted themselves and I truly don't know what I did to get them that way (most particularly: Firefox had tons of bizarre scaling problems no matter what resolution and scaling% I used, now it is perfect at 3200x1800 and 150% to 200% depending on how my eyes are feeling and how much real estate I need. 4) the singular problem I'm aware of is a small nit: after running the trackpad driver update, things got much better and the settings stayed put even after a reboot which was not the case before the update. Also, they removed the "Reverse" option for two finger scrolling. Great - er, not really; the default, and seemingly unalterable scrolling is stuck in reverse, like a g.d. Apple. Me no like. Any idea how to fix?

 

I didn't get the model you have for 763 I got the base 4g / 128gb sdd. You still got a very good deal for that price. With the ebay bucks first you have to be signed up which I think you are and the trick is you have to go under your ebay settings and sign up for promotional offers and once I did that I got it like 2 weeks later I think. Just be ready to spend because when you get it it might only be for a day or 3 days like mine and the max per item is 100 bucks and 500 bucks total. So like buying an ipad for 320 would get me like 45 bucks off and a computer for 600 and up 100 so it also makes sense to buy in certain ranges something under 150 is not really worth it. And even though I am not a mac person they were selling the 13 retina's for 999 on Thursday so 100 off that is a crazy good deal.

For the battery I think Samsung might do that to save the life of the battery might be a setting somewhere have not seen anything yet. Another weird thing is I set up mine ativ and my girlfriend exact same where and hers is more complete in her settings like mine when on battery it doesn't change yellows to mustard like it should to save power and a few more things I updated all drivers so I really don't know what I did wrong on mine

For firefox I am at full resolution and it scales perfect

For trackpad reverse I did the same you need to search this thread for the old touchpad exe you don't have to install it just download and run and old options will be there. it is called ETDAniConf.exe

 

What, I really like the blue-black, way better than the tired old mba grey. Not really any difference between mHDMI and fullsize, but HDMI 2.0 or better yet mDP/TB2 would be an improvement. Bigger? I'd say ligheter. And ditch the pentile for a 4K. Of course this might be the last of the 9 series so not a bad machine to get on discount.

 

Yeah it pretty much perfect but for some reason I can't get my settings to give me the option check under display the option that turns yellow colors to mustard to save battery life. And I can't install Intel ME interface driver.

 

Thanks for your very responsive post. I did actually purchase a couple of the base 9+ models at Blinq but then un-bought them when they posted my "loaded" (hasn't Samsung and others done a great job of reconditioning me to consider an i7U, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD "loaded," when today it should take a 28-35W cpu and double that RAM and SSD to move the needle?!!) sample in open box form (I take it you realize these can all be registered and put under warranty for 15 months - 12 + 3 bonus for registering - as long as the original box-opener never did so - a 98% probability) and I looked at my bloated inventory of electronic devices and realized I needed to restrict my indulgence to just what I can use personally and neither plan for future business capacity nor acquire to offer my nearest and dearest the kinds of bargains that used to endear me to them eternally, but with prices of laptops sinking like boulders it's harder to justify any purchase in advance of actual need. Besides, as my screen ID gives away, I have become a terrible hoarder of the "best laptops ever made," and decided there are too many other categories of mouth-watering devices and hybrids of devices to warrant the "oxy-moronic" (or just plain moronic!) of collecting technology "classics!"

Whew, thanks for letting me get that all off my chest. So, a few follow-ups if I may. 1) are you suggesting that all I need to do is to register for eBay promotional offers and expect to receive a flow of offers of products that start out as bargains and then become absolute steals with offers of 4x the usual eBay bucks dividends? Or do I have to purchase more as an eBay bucks registrant for them to be offered in multiples? 2) Are you saying that none of the s9+ units you acquired are showing less than 100% of designed capacity? I can't find anything specific to this model that can explain, much less correct, for the 5.5% deficiency, though it is most curious because normally a new battery is either perfect or it has a larger deficit and it worsens progressively at a quick rate, which is not occurring. Also, mine isn't dulling the yellows on battery either so I guess I too am getting inordinately low run times (after adjusting for the 5.5% capacity shortfall, powercfg tells me I've been going at a run rate of 6.5 hrs/charge, though I've only logged a cumulative 15 hours on battery thus far and many have told me it can take 5 or more full cycles to normalize calibration.

Thanks for the tip about getting the previous trackpad driver. Are you aware of any benefits to the new one? I believe the previous ones were sometimes resetting themselves to default values - thus, the infernal reverse scrolling! - whenever I rebooted, and the current ones are stable in all settings, including the scrolling directions. Maybe I'll just get used to them ;/ .

Now that all the scaling is perfect I'd have to say this is very close to as good as I can hope a 3 lb, $1K Ultrabook to be. Things like the color of the back lighting (I'm just happy that it is effective and adjustable) and the permanent embossing of the Samsung device compatibility (which, as the owner of a - beloved - Galaxy Note 8 tablet and a - meh - GS4 phone I'll get some sort of utility from) don't detract from the quietly elegant design, the truly top grade build and component quality (well, no AC wifi deserves a 1/2 star demerit if only for the inconvenience of replacing the card when I get around to replacing my routers!)...Bottom line, this is one delightful piece of kit and truly feels like one I'll be reaching for daily for a good time to come.

Thanks for sharing all the great advice. Best, Jeff

 

What member michaeljean said was to search the thread for ETDAniConf, and you will find several posts that explain how to disable Reverse scrolling. It is an alternative control panel included in some versions of the driver, but not automatically installed. See this post for details, including on how to make it reveal even more gestures and options. That entire tread is our compendium on Elan touchpad issues.

ETDAniConf works with all versions of Elan drivers. You don't have to install an older touchpad driver -- although sometimes that can be beneficial if the current driver does not work well. It sounds like you are encountering a common issue where the Elan driver sometimes "forgets" to load after wakeup from sleep (described here). It always takes a while to load after login, but if it takes several minutes, some re-installing may be in order.

I you bought a refurbished or open box laptop (particularly an MS Store model which may already have been tweaked too aggressively by Microsoft, as you mentioned) I would definitely consider a factory restore or re-install as the first step. Same goes for one from eBay. I wouldn't trust such an installation, neither in terms of functionality nor security. But I am bit OCD with these things

 

Thank you so much, Dannemand. (If it wasn't for you and John R, I don't think I would have any interest in owning a Samsung! ) The ETDAniConf program did indeed offer a Reverse Scrolling box to uncheck and this has delighted me no end. Mission accomplished; that was the only problem I had with the trackpad.

.A couple of confusions remain, even after reading a good bit of the Elan Touchpad thread [Spoiler alert: I am rather clumsy when it comes to things like maintaining alternate versions of Registries and techniques requiring equal or greater technical prowess!] :

1) The alternate touchpad control panel does not obey my global scaling settings and thus I actually needed a magnifying glass to read it - been watching an old Sherlock Holmes movie so that may have induced my desire to use a glass I couldn't use any screen or touchpad zoom techniques to enlarge it either. Any ideas - or just get better glasses?!

2) I put a shortcut to The ETDAniConf program on my desktop and moved a copy of the file to the Elan driver folder as suggested in the other thread, but I don't get the reason for the latter? Just having it in the Elan settings folder doesn't make it easier to run, and a desktop (and taskbar) shortcut work just fine. Missing something here? As for suggestions of altering Registry settings...???? What benefit would this provide? Any interest in providing a more novice-type direction for implementing it?

Again, thanks so much for devoting your time and expertise to these threads. Samsung support is so bad that I worry about any hardware problems that may occur (like my battery, that started life at 94.5% of designed capacity), but in all other respects the Samsung threads are among the best I've seen on NBR, and I am a 5-year member with over 3,000 posts and heavy participation in the Sony Z threads, the best I've seen prior to these! Many thanks; hope to return the favors as best I can. Jeff Bellin

 

Here is a short list of issues I'm having with my Samsung ATIV 9 Plus with the
following specs:

Processor: Intel i5-4200U CPU @ 1.60GHz 2.30 GHz

RAM: 4.00 GB

OS: Windows 8.1 @ 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Screen: 3200 x 1900 rez w/ Windows Touch Support @ 10 touch points



1. Will not copy or paste via CTRL + C or CTRL + X only by using an interface command.
2. Does delete highlighted text if "Enter" is pressed while text is highlighted.
3. Will not disengage from scroll bars so that pages whip up and down whenever I try
to scroll down then select an item within the page's content.
4. Sensitivity is so high on the touch pad that even the very ever so slightest brush creates a selection or other type of event.
5. Keys on manual keyboard stick or do not function on the 1st-3rd attempt to depress.

That's enough for a start as it makes me even more suicidal to think of everything considering the price I paid for this unit.
I have accessed the advanced ELAN touchpad settings in the program files, so have tinkered with all the available combinations
of settings there. If anyone has any suggestions to remedy any of these issues I would appreciate the advisement.

 

Thank you

Good job getting it working with ETDAniConf and Reverse scrolling. I have the Reverse scrolling option in the simple (standard) control panel (see screenshot below), running Elan driver version 11.7.10.4, which I found in SW Update under Win8 drivers for model NP880Z5E-X03CA almost a year ago -- and never bothered to update since because everything works to my liking. Samsung have since added Win8.1 drivers for that model (and other newer models) including Elan driver version 11.7.19.9, which I have not yet tried.



1) I see, about ETDAniConf not scaling on hi-res: I don't have this model myself, but can you switch to a lower resolution (FHD or 1600x900) while you use ETDAniConf to tweak the touchpad settings, then set it back to 3200x1800 when you have it working right?

2) About where to place ETDAniConf.EXE and its shortcut: I merely suggested copying the EXE to the Elantech Program Files folder and create the shortcut to that (in Start Menu or wherever) so that the shortcut will always work. I delete my Install folders over time as I move to newer versions, and this just creates a permanent location for ETDAniConf.EXE so that the shortcut will keep working.

2a) The purpose of editing the registry settings in HKCU\Software\Elantech\SmartPadDisplay is to reveal gestures and settings in ETDAniConf which are not shown by default. Each Setting in that key with a value of 0 (see RegEdit screendump below) is a "hidden" setting that will not normally be shown in ETDAniConf. By Setting them to 1, these settings will be shown next time ETDAniConf is loaded. But you have to set them every time. That's why I suggest saving a .REG file with all those values at 1 (using Export in RegEdit) then load that .REG file before opening ETDAniConf. I have attached my .REG file from when I first did this -- but it's from Dec 2012, there could be some changes since then. I cannot really speak to each of the individual settings in ETDAniConf, since my own touchpad works exactly the way I like just using the simple standard control panel.

Note: Needless to say, editing the Registry can bork your computer if you make mistakes. This is only for users who are familiar with Registry editing.



View attachment ETDAniConf Display all settings.zip

3) Regarding your battery, did you try a Battery Calibration in BIOS (assuming this model has that feature)? You basically charge the battery to 100%, unplug the power adapter, then let Battery Calibration in BIOS run the battery down completely. Some suggest to use the computer for regular work until it is down to 10-15% charge before starting the Calibration cycle. Personally I just let Calibration run all the way, it works through my battery at a decent clip. Raise the back of the computer to help letting the hot air escape. This will help reset the battery gauges to give more accurate battery readings, and can occasionally improve wear. BUT it can also increase battery wear, because it discharges the battery completely. So only do it once every 3-6 months or so.

I don't think 5% wear (if that's what you are seeing) is excessive on a refurb'ed unit (if that's what you have).

 

Hello cbnorwood, welcome to NBR.

It sounds like your laptop is not running well at all. Since all of the issues you describe seem to be touchpad and/or keyboard related (or were you referring to touchscreen issues?) I am wondering if there is either a hardware defect or a problem with the part of BIOS that controls these devices (called MICOM).

Assuming you are running the original Samsung Windows installation, I would suggest a factory restore using Samsung Recovery Solution (SRS): Tap F4 immediately after a cold power on, and keep tapping it about 2-3 times per second. That should get you into SRS. From here, perform a Recovery as described in this Samsung guide. There is an option to Maintain user data, but I would definitely make backups before doing this.

Note that if this is an MS Store model, you may not have Samsung Recovery Solution. You will have to check with Microsoft what is the correct factory restore procedure in that case.

If factory restore does not take care of the issue, I suggest to try and reset BIOS settings to default values (you can also try that first if you prefer). Boot into BIOS using F2 (again, tap 2-3 times per second immediately after a cold power on), press F9 (for BIOS Setup Defaults). Now disable Fast BIOS/Fast Boot (on the Advanced page) and SecureBoot (on the Boot page, leave OS Mode Selection=UEFI OS) and press F10 to save and reboot. This is just a temporary precaution, until we've seen that Windows can boot correctly: If somebody re-installed Windows at any point with changed BIOS/UEFI settings, resetting to default could cause boot problems, and disabling those options leaves an escape door open. Once you have seen that Windows boots correctly, go back into BIOS (F2) and re-enable SecureBoot (to protect against rootkits and malware) and Fast Boot/Fast BIOS (to speed up boot).

If that still doesn't solve the issues, you can try a deeper reset of your BIOS/CMOS data tables, using the procedure described here. Notice the disclaimer.

If none of this works to alleviate the issues, I would contact Samsung service. I am sure you still have warranty, since these models are less than a year old. They will probably ask you to factory restore, just tell you already did that.

You got a great laptop there, one of the best. Don't live with issues like this. It's not supposed to be like that.

Once comment, though: When you say selected text is deleted when you press Enter: That's standard behavior in most programs: Selected text is replaced with the text you type -- including with a new line when pressing Enter. That's very basic, I am sorry if I misunderstood you.

 

Hi
Haven't posted on here in a while and not sure if this is the right place but here goes....
Am looking to get my son a new laptop for school and want one that will last the school day, so around 6 hrs i guess.
Last year got my wife a Chronos 7 Series with touchscreen - awesome laptop, can't fault it, especially the 10hr battery life. Anyway, have my eye on an Ativ Book 9 for my son but can't decide between the Lite and the Plus. I know the AB9+ is way better than the Lite (similar to the chronos in many ways) but it is TWICE the price of the Lite. If it was for me I'd have to have the AB9+ because I do a lot of heavy stuff in work and would need the extra power but my son is only going to use it for email, internet, and some school project stuff which mainly means light use of office applications. He's not a gaming freak either so no need to worry about that.
It's the classic dilemma of Heart (AB9+) -v- Head (Lite)!!
Advice/comments appreciated.
Thanks
Rob

 

Hey guys that are that are new to this laptop check if in the settings app under display then display color do you have the auto display mode management at the bottom one of the three of the ativ books I bought does not and all where setup the same. I did a clean install of windows 8.1 then samsund software updates and then windows updates last. These are all the same models NP940X3G-K03US and two of them have it but mine does not I can't figure it out don't want to reinstall as I am all setup but samsund tech support is no help all they do is reinstall it and same result.

This is the option that turns yellows down like to a mustard color to save battery when not plugged in. I don't want to reinstall but I don't know how it is not there going to maybe try swapping the hard drives to see if it comes on in my laptop