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

Would love to hear more details about your install experience, e.g., "clean install" or "upgrade," any driver issues, what happens with the Samsung apps, etc.

 

Got a Samsung Software Upgrade notice a couple of days ago for a new Wi-Fi driver. I installed it, everything seemed okay. But when I booted up the next day, NO Wi-Fi. Device Manager showed a "bang" (!) on the Intel wireless network adapter. So I used Device Manager to do a driver roll-back, and that fixed it.

Just giving you a heads-up if you install this update.

 

I had no problems with the latest WI-FI update.

 

So I tried it again...failed again. But this time it offered me a download that would allow a manual installation. Did it, and after a couple of tries (no instructions) got the driver update to install.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Upon a new boot-up, the Wi-Fi does not work. If I then do a RESTART, it starts working and is okay until the next SHUT DOWN and boot-up. I haven't figured out why it won't install correctly.

 

I think the touchpad issues are software related. My gf has this laptop, and her touchpad is sometimes acting up. Most of the time it simply stops working (for example, after she plugs the computer into AC). Today however, the mouse started clicking ~1cm (100 pixels?) to the left of the actual pointer location. So if in a word "samsung" she clicks between "s" and "u", it would actually put the cursor between "a" and "m".

I hope there's no need for warranty replacement! Except of this, it is the best laptop I have ever seen.

 

Hi. I was just forced to install 9860. I´v read that wi-fi would not work on that build, but for me it actually works better than ever on my router at home, witch have a lot of weird problems.

Most stuff worked right away. After I installed Settings the keyboard backlight and the brigtness-keys started working. I needed the LAN update from SW-update for that to work too.

I think some things are great, like "mission control" and multiple desktops. Alot of small things need to change thou. But the system is stable and the battery is great. I got feed up with the multitasking in W8.1 and was using my MBPr all the time in school. If MS can keep building towards what I´m seeing so far, then the ATB9P will be great. Hope Samsung will keep supporting this machine with drivers for W10.

Edit: Sorry. Did not answer any of your questions.

Installed it as an update. All programs, metro or legacy, disappeared or need a new download. Just downloaded SW-update and picked out what i wanted. Samsung/ELAN drivers where still there, and under the last build I had to redo my personal settings for the touchpad after every restart. Don´t know if that is still the case on 9860.

 

I bought mine refurbished, in practically brand new condition, with a 30 day warranty. Plugged in my USB mouse, and the machine was quick and beautiful. Never used the touchpad until about a week or so ago, when my mouse batteries died. Lo and behold.... erratic touchpad issues. It's fine for the first few minutes after reboot, but then it happens repeatedly. It jumps, skips, and goes between moving and not moving. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers numerous times, yet it still happens. Had I known about this beforehand, I would have sent it back. Quickly. Unfortunately, I'm about 2 weeks past my 30 day warranty. So it's my own fault for not checking out every aspect of it. That's when I found this forum and discovered that it has been an ongoing issue. I don't mind using the USB mouse, in fact, I prefer it in most cases. But what happens when you can't? It just seems like something Samsung would have fixed by now, or at least apologized, or replaced free of charge. Outside of that, the laptop is phenomenal. Beautiful screen, and very snappy. But I would still like a functional touchpad for the cost.

 

In regards to the touchpad erratic issues, for me it was a mechanical issue, even though it goes away after a restart... see link.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...-owner-s-lounge-np940x3g-168.html#post9808378

Last week, I contacted Samsung support online and reported my issue - I even included a video of how I can reproduce the issue. They sent me a UPS label to send it in for repairs. After one day at Intelisol, my laptop was marked as repaired and shipped back to me. I will be receiving it tomorrow. Hopefully, they replaced the touchpad or motherboard or whatever is causing the touchpad erratic issues. Will report back if it is fixed. Samsung's support was all free (shipping labels, fix, etc since under warranty)... the only bad part is that I am w/out my laptop for <2 weeks (mostly due to shipping, not the repairs). Fingers crossed!

====

Update 11/20/2014

Great news. My laptop came back repaired today. The repair statement included one part replaced: "BA97-03991A - ASSY CASE FRONT-TOP;AMOR3-13,SEC,US,AL." It looks Samsung via Intelisol replaced the whole front (touchpad, keyboard, etc.). It is a nice because my laptop looks newer then before, haha, no fingerprints/oils. So far, everything including the touchpad is working great. I cannot reproduce the erratic touchpad issues anymore... hopefully it will stay this way . I am happy with Samsung's free support and repairs.

 

This is awesome! I am so happy to hear this. I plan on sending my computer in over my winter break from school in a couple of weeks, so I will let them know that someone I know with the same problem had "BA97-03991A - ASSY CASE FRONT-TOP;AMOR3-13,SEC,US,AL" replaced and it fixed the problem. Thank you so much for the info. How long did the whole process take, from the day you shipped your laptop out to when you got it back? Thanks again!

 

So sorry to hear of your troubles. 30 days is an awfully short wtty for a refurb - 90 days is far more common. My advice (based on numerous similar situations) is:

A) call their customer support line and state your case. Some may say this is unethical and, well, just wrong to some but if you wsnt a good chance of getting the service you deserve, say that you have been very ill for most of the 30 days, not even well enough to sit up in bed to test every function of the machine to determine if there wete any problems and state that have long mouse-only user and it didn't even occur to you to check it until just past the 30 days.

B) Of course, you could just attempt a straight approach and if they blow you off, escalate to higher mgt and sap-up the story.

This is a kind of war! Any commercial enterprise that sells an allgedly nearly new and thoroughly refurbished computer and provides a paltry 30 day wtty is all but acknowledging the've sold your a product you will discover faults with after the very short wtty period is over. In any case, pick an approach and attempt to get service on the trackpad.

Report back here with you result. I'll stick by you and help all the way, as will others here. Would you be willing to say who the vendor is, your configuration and what you paid? I (and others here) have experience with many of them.

There is also a reaistic chance that Samsung will extend themselves for you, particularly if it's a hardware problem. One step at a time, though.

Oh, very, very important approach I skipped : there is a wealth of very successful strategies for fixing your trackpad issues yourself, with software /driver fixes only. No, everyone hasnt had success but the majority - including yours truly! - were.

Take heart! No guarantees, but you will have support. That's what makes NBR so great

All the best,
Jeff Bellin

 

I was cleaning out dust from the back of my book 9 plus today and unfortunately lost one of the tiny screws. Does anyone know where I could order a replacement screw/s?

 

The screws might be either this (CH,+,-,M2,L4,PVD(BLK),STS) or this (BH,+,M2,L4,ZPC(BLK),SWRCH1). The M2 L4 means 2mm diameter 4mm long while the CH and BH are different type of head.

Alternatively, get one of the packs of assorted screws (which contains two types of 2 x 4 screws) and see if something adequately fits.

John

 

hi all

first post since I got my 940x3g k05us.

Just had it in with Samsung repairs to get my hdmi working but to no avaial.
I originally had all hues on an external display going purple/pink, but the same monitior on the same cable using a 900x3a works fine.
Got a receipt back to say the motherboard was replaced, but heres the rub. I have a K03se motherboard now and still got a funny purple/pink display!

I will be going back but wanted to check if this has been seen before AND does will a K03se m/b version affect the spec in anyway...especially if I wish to sell it on (but not thinking at all about this)

 

I just checked out new lenovo yoga pro 3 in the shop.
Anyone else think we have probably one of the best looking and performing ultrabooks ever made?
I will never sell mine..

Such a pity Samsung stopped production of Ativ book + series......

 

Pretty sure the hdmi port should actually be on a daughterboard not the main motherboard, not sure if that got replaced as well. Still, you should verify that the issue persists on a different display using a different hdmi cable.

 

I got a very weird issue after replacing the SSD.

Every time I unplug the power cord and let the laptop run on battery, after a while the sound goes off. A red cross appears on the speaker icon and it alerts "no audio output device is installed".

When the red cross appears, no matter what I try, the sound would never come back. The only workaround is to swap back the original SSD and have the speaker work a while, and then swap back the new SSD.

I sent it in and had the daughter board replaced, but the problem persists. So tired of this issue. Anyone with similar experience or knows how to fix it? Thanks!

 

Did you clone the SSD or make a clean installation of Windows?

If you reinstalled Windows on the new SSD then the problem may be caused by a driver issue.

John

 

Tried both, and the issue persists. I thought it might be Samsung's power management profile. This issue for sure arises when the laptop wakes up from sleep. But I just don't know how to fix it. Tried no installing "Settings", but the screen is dim like hexx.The Samsung guy had no idea and advised me to re-install windows every time .....

 

This machine is only beaten by the 900x3c and the 900x3e when it comes to design.

 

1) Been having some weird issue with latest wifi update. Everytime I hibernate and come back the wifi will be off with Windows reporting an error with the device and automatically turning it off. I tried using the SW Update tool but it said this was the latest driver. I check Intel and their latest driver actually has an older number (though later date, strange) so that won't install. I then check with Samsung and basically they can't help me.

Now I do a simple roll back of the driver and everything seems to work fine again! I still can't install the latest Intel driver as somehow the system still knows the latest Samsung wifi driver is still "there" even though inactive.

2) My laptop has the 128 GB m.2 drive and I've been thinking of upgrading it to a 256 GB. I don't know much about m.2 drives but my understanding is that there are three different sizes which are incompatible with each other. Samsung was able to confirm that the physical size of the m.2 drive is "22*80*3.75mm, W*L*H" so do with that information as you will! They would not confirm to me the model number of the OEM 256 GB, so this was the best I could get. Anyone know anything more about what m.2 upgrades are available AND WORK?

 

Hey, was just wondering how the touchpad has been holding up after repair?

 

The touchpad has been great .

 

I made the horrible mistake of doing Samsung software updates yesterday. I had spent so much time reading through this thread disabling Adaptive Brightness and was able to do it, but now after the software update it has come back and I can't seem to get it disabled again. In addition to that, I have this new weird issue where if I boost the brightness to the maximum (when plugged in), the colors seem to shift at maximum brightness. It is extremely weird.

Can someone help me get rid of these two problems? 1) Adaptive Brightness (i.e., screen slowly flickers dimming/brightening itself based on screen content), and 2) Color shifting as I increase brightness to maximum.

Here is a video of the "color shift" I describe when toggling between maximum brightness and the 2nd highest brightness level:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqyeqHoLjs8

Here is what I have disabled to try and avoid adaptive brightness:

 

Hi gnychis, welcome to NBR.

It looks like you disabled Adaptive Brightness in all the right places. Still, there are two more places you can check:

1) Charms menu -Settings - Change PC Settings - PC and devices - Display. I forget the exact location, but somewhere in there. Normally, disabling Adaptive Brightness in Samsung Settings (Fn-F1) should disable it here as well, but apparently not in your case.

2) UEFI firmware settings. Charms menu - Settings - Change PC settings - Update and Recovery - Recovery - Advanced Startup options.

Also, make sure you disabled it for both Battery and Plugged in as Windows remembers the setting for each. The post here tries to sum it up -- but it sounds like you already did your homework.

If you still cannot get it working, I suggest you uninstall/re-install Settings. Anytime Settings is re-installed, you need to redo various tweaks, a described in this post.

 

You can try uninstalling the Samsung provided WiFi driver using Windows Programs and Features control panel, then install the latest from Intel's website. That's what I would do anyway. Or you can even try a more thorough rollback and cleanout as described in the opening post of the thread linked below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/727499-wifi-remedies-samsung-laptops.html

 

If you check my previous posts, you will see that I mentioned the yellow shifts when the brightness is set to max. Unfortunately, there is no way to fix this. Sorry to tell you this, but there seems to be no way to fix the adaptive brightness either with the current Intel driver. This annoying flickering is caused by the Intel driver, not Windows. It used to have a menu in battery settings for disabling the adaptive brightness, but somehow the menu has disappeared since the last or a few Intel updates ago. There might be a way to force it through registry, but since I've been using the laptop mostly plugged in to an external monitor, I have not looked too hard about it. Please update me if you find a way.

 

You know, I'm kind of embarrassed but I can't figure out how to download just the bare drivers from Intel. I can only figure out how to get the entire bloated EXE with the automated install. The first post in that other thread simply says to "get it" but I don't have that option (I think).

 

LOL

Don't be embarrassed: That link to Intel Download Center in the WiFi Remedies guide actually went straight to a 6235 driver list, making it hard to look for other drivers. Thank you for pointing that out.

I just updated that guide to include a general link to Intel Download Center (see below) where you can enter your adapter and OS, find the latest Intel PROSet/Wireless Software for your Windows version, and download the Driver Only package -- named Wireless_17.0.6_De164.exe for the latest Win8.1 driver version 17.0.6.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx

 

Quick question: would you still recommend buying this laptop today - although it's around a year old!?

I need a laptop this month - and have been looking at this for some time - and have a hard time finding something better - although I was looking closely at the new Yoga 3 Pro! The Samsung overall seems to win most rounds here!

 

It's over a year old, but sadly this has been a pretty boring year for laptops and I don't know if there is anything better in a 13" touch. The AB9+ is well regarded and the chipset is still top of the line. Provided you can find one for a reasonable price, (the MS Store is a good option if you are in the US) it's certainly worth considering. The Yoga 3 may get better battery life from the Core M, at the expense of some horsepower. More Core M and Broadwell models are coming next year, but that doesn't help with your deadline. Samsung has all but exited the market, so it seems like there may not be a new model anyway. Other options are MacAir, MS Surface 3, Dell/HP/Asus/Lenovo models.

 

Thanks, and I can only agree - not much has happened this year. I got it for a good price so will probably keep it - as the Yoga 3 Pro seem to have battery life that's inferior to the Samsung - and I think benchmarks point to the same thing.

 

Did they ever return your laptop? I'm curious as to whether or not they fixed the touchpad issue. A Samsung rep remoted into mine and reinstalled the same drivers that I had already reinstalled numerous times. He also said that he heard no mention of touchpad issues, which I found hard to believe. Needless to say, it didn't help. This happened late one night last week, and I haven't had time to contact them again. It's time I made the call though. I'm curious as to whether it's hardware related or driver related.

 

Great to hear! Then I will go ahead and send mine in for repair as soon as this school semester ends in 2 weeks.

 

I purchased my ATB9+ last year, and I love it. I only have one issue with using google Chrome.

When I Hibernate/Sleep/Close lid of my ATB9+ with Chrome still open, and when I reopen, Chrome becomes unresponsive to my mouse and trackpad. The browser window will not show my mouse cursor. I can however see the cursor hover over my tabs and close/min/max buttons, but they will not respond. I have to force close chrome or open a new chrome window to use it again.

However, Chrome while it doesn't respond to my mouse, will respond to the touch screen, like normal. Anyone else experience this? What can I do to fix this? Thank you!

 

Yeah, I just picked up a second one for a friend of mine. Best balance of hardware, battery, and mobility IMHO. Broadwell appears to be a dud, slightly more battery life for significantly slower hardware which causes stuttering and lag even in day to day activities. Intel and MS Windows 8/8.1 are doing their darndest to kill demand for upgrades! Hopefully 2015 will be more interesting.

 

Great, thanks. It seems to be a keeper.

 

Ok. Let me know if you decide to try it.

Interesting. That effect certainly seem like something you'd want to avoid. You have no issues with reflections during normal use?

 

Keep in mind Broadwell hasn't been fully released yet. Core M isn't the only chip they're doing, it may end up in a majority of ultrabooks, but I think there will still be some higher-powered 15W U series. It seems unlikely we will see Broadwell anything from Samsung, but it may be worth waiting for January (CES) if you're looking to upgrade. Though who knows how long it will take from announcement to actually roll out, could be Q2-3 2015 like Haswell!

 

Total bummer. Is there a way to revert the Intel driver back to when I could disable it? I checked my system recovery and restore points and there's nothing before the newest update. If I could somehow override it with a version I know I can disable it in.

 

First off, I'm so sorry you are having to deal with these issues but I do have one thought that I haven't seen mentioned and I will describe it presently, but first I want to express my gratitude for myself and no doubt countless others for whom you have done a great solid by warning us not to do this graphics "update" (more like a graphics downer!).

So here's my thought on the adaptive brightness. On I believe it was the first group of toggles, called Screen Brightness, you have unchecked all three toggles, the first two - sadly ineffective in your current driver - would lead you to believe you had disabled adaptive brightness both when plugged-in and when running on battery. So, irritatingly, no joy there, nor elsewhere such as in your power plan settings you've done exactly what we've all done from day one. Here's what I would do as a workaround, hoping against hope this one toggle will function as described, I would check the box next to "Adjust brightness to maximum using Fn keys," or words to that effect. The description of that function is alleged to enable you to turn the brightness to its maximum setting using Fn + [sun icon] and hope it will at least enable you to override the evil [mal]adaptive brightness and remain on the brightest setting unaffected by the A/B [dis]functionality. If that does (accidentally!) actually work as advertised you will have a bright, but stable and flicker-free display. If it turns out that you can't check that box, go to max brightness manually and then lower and raise brightness without further meddling by the screen nanny, but rather can keep it away only by using maximum brightness, you can dim the screen for darker environments with the color controls in the Intel Graphics control panel.

I happen to think there will be a driver un-break for this issue, as the very fact of the disastrous recent driver update shows someone at Samsung still has a job fiddling with drivers for this model. I strongly advise all - especially those of you spared this aggravating problem through the misfortune of others - to write directly to Samsung Notebook computer customer service and on the Samsung owner forums screaming about this.

I do hope some of you are successful rolling back your graphics drivers to where they were working just fine, thank you very much, grrrrrhh Sammy! As for the shifting tints at full brightness, I have to say that mine are not nearly as noticeable as they appear on your video and I wonder if the flickering behavior somehow accentuates the normally slight shift, largely noticeable on lemony yellow colors that oddly darken and shift slightly to a "mustardy" tint only at that brightest setting. If my suggested workaround for the adaptive' brightness gremlin dogs you with yellows that appear somewhat brownish I recommend that you go into the Intel graphics control panel and reduce the brightness of the green tone only by 5-10 notches. Again, I am quite a color fanatic and I installed the Sammy patch during setup of my current unit and need to fill the screen with a yellow test pigment to observe a fairly subtle shift.

I'm afraid I've used a lot of ink pixels to add fairly little value here, but chalk it up to my guilty feelings for having dodged all the bullets one hears of in this thread - all of the above, trackpad issues, wifi issues, etc. In closing, I would say to those who recently posted for advice on buying this model, now a year old, I would emphatically endorse it as the finest notebook pc I have ever owned in terms of design, build and material quality, screen, general usability and that certain je ne sais qua of a silky smooth feel to every part of this computer's construction and operation. As there is no legacy software I use that doesn't play nice with Windows 8.1 scalability I also strongly advocate for the QHD+ display because at 200% I get perfectly sized and sharply formed 1600x900 characters - perfect for a 13" screen but video and graphics at up to 4k look so dramatic that I would hate to think I had to buy a new laptop in a year or two when bandwidth constraints will cease to restrict streamed video and even still graphics - both produced at 4k and above for some time now - from being routinely delivered at such gorgeous resolution. Wanna see it? Head over to You Tube and get a look at 2100p looks like on these screens. And if you do use legacy software that doesn't scale well, drop down to either 1920x1080 or 1600x900 and enjoy what all those MacBook Retina fans are all worked up over.

Peace, all.

 

Hello, so I'm not sure if this is the place to be doing this. But I'm in a bit of a jam. So I have my Samsung ativ book 9 plus, the 2013 one. A few months ago, I broke my charger and recently bought a new charger, not a Samsung charger I'm afraid, because I had originally bought the laptop at a Microsoft store and they didn't sell chargers individually. I ordered one off Amazon. Now, I plugged in the charger and started charging my laptop. When the battery was full (indicated by a green light on the top left, right next to the power light), I decided to un-plug the laptop.

When I tried to switch it on, the power light goes blue to show that the power is on, but the screen won't light up, nor will the keypad. I've tried switching it on a bunch of times now, but it still won't switch on. I don't know what to do and would appreciate some help from someone who would!

 

I would not expect the 3rd party PSU to be the cause of this problem: I've used several of these with the Series / book 9 notebooks (but not the Book 9+) without any problems.

Have you tried starting the computer both with and without the PSU plugged in? The next step is to hold down the power button for maybe 20 seconds so the computer realises you want to turn the computer off and then press the button again to do a cold boot. If that doesn't work then disconnect the PSU, turn the computer over and look for a battery disconnect hole on the back. If you can find this (I'm not sure if this model has one) then gently poke the end of a straightened paperclip into the hole then open the computer and hold down the power button for a minute. Then plug in the PSU and try to start the computer.

Let us know if any of these work.

John

 

Does anyone else experience very laggy browser experiences in Chrome or Firefox? IE works fine with both touch and mouse, but other than that all other browsers lag when scrolling. Youtube videos also lag on chrome, even with the adapter plugged in.

 

Issues after upgrading from 8.1 to 8.1 pro

I just upgraded my 5 month old NP940X3G- K04US from window 8.1 to 8.1 pro using the upgrade option. My laptop was working fine, but I was forced to upgrade as my primary work software (SAS 9.4) works only with the 8.1 pro /enterprise. Ever since the upgrade, I hear the fan running more frequently and the CPU is more active. The worst thing is the battery which shows less than 3 hours with 100% charge (I used to see 7+ hours with 8.1). I am not sure if there is a different set of drivers for 8.1 pro. I called the Samsung supports -they were clueless. Anyone else encountered similar issues?
Thanks in advance

 

There shouldn't be different drivers for different versions of any edition of Windows. The Pro version of Windows contains some additional networking capabilities - is something searching for a server? What happens if you disable the Wifi so there's no network connection?

Otherwise your task is to figure out what is creating the extra CPU load. Restart the computer then run Task Manager. Go the the Processes tab > View > Select columns and select CPU time (which is the cumulative CPU usage). Also select Show processes for all users and let the computer idle. After a few minutes you can click on the header for the CPU time column to sort the time used by size. You then need to figure out what the processes are that are using the time. You can right click on a process and Select Open file location to see what the process belongs to. Unfortunately, there can be multiple instances of some system processes such as svchost.exe. In this case search for and download Sysinternals Process Explorer which can help trace the process dependencies.

John

 

Thanks a lot John. I have been watching the processes in the task manager and there is some improvement during the past 24hrs. The CPU is now between 7-15% which I guess is normal and the fan is working less frequently. However the battery is still at less that 3 hrs with 100% charge. Switching off the WIFI didn't make any difference. May be I need to re-calibrate the battery

 

BatteryInfoView will show if the fully charged capacity of the battery is a lot less than the designed capacity and hence whether you need to run the battery calibration.

I would consider CPU usage of 7 - 15% on idle to be very high. 2% - 3% would be a reasonable target so I think that should be your focus and it should result in a significant decrease in power consumption. Check that background tasks such as disk indexing are disabled.

John

 

**Back to old topic - one last revisit, please** Updating Intel Wifi driver via SW Update from present 17.0.5.8 (from Intel download site, date 6/2014) to 17.12.04, offered as update in Samsung SW Update. First, my wifi is working great, in all respects, as it has since I acquired this model some 6 months ago. Second, I have read several accounts of problems people have encountered after installing the SW Update driver currently offered. My Bluetooth is the only thing that's a bit erratic. From time to time it can't connect to any of the paired devices. About 50% of the time, I have to uninstall the particular device and reinstall it, then it works great. Next time around it may or may not work. As I have about 8 BT devices paired, I can't say whether some connect more readily than others, but it seems that all require an remove device/add device to connect fine about 50% of the time. I'ts a bit annoying, but not worth losing reliable wifi service to correct - especially given no guarantees installing the Samsung wifi upgrade will help.

Advice please: stick with what I have for now or go ahead and install Samsung update and just roll back if it makes things worse?

Thanks, Jeff

 

My current setup is below w/out any wifi or bluetooth issues.

Wireless: Intel Wireless 17.0.6.1 (straight from Intel); disable power management to sleep; all recent newer versions of the wifi drivers have sleep/wake issues for me (avoid 17.1.0 and 17.12.0.4); older Intel driver 16.10.0.5 also very stable

Bluetooth: current bluetooth 17.1.1407.x from Samsung, no issues for me; some of my previous Bluetooth drivers had issues which could be corrected by disable power management in the device manager

 

Exact same problem: IE butter smooth, Firefox, Chrome laggy, certainly with scrolling, 1080p video, 4k video.
Hope there's a solution. Tried all tweaks, nothing helped.