2013 Series 7 chronos / Ativ Book 8 15" owner's lounge (NP770Z5E / NP780Z5E / NP870Z5E / NP880Z5E)

This may be too late for those having this problem, but I figured out why certain games flicker with certain driver versions. Although it isn't the normal purpose of the fix, the Enduro Fix linked earlier in this topic will fix it.

I only figured it out by using Fraps. I noticed it was flickering between two different framerates, then realized they were the different fps I got on the game (Dark Souls) when using the integrated vs. dedicated graphics. What is happening is the driver is basically using hybrid crossfire (no idea how or why) and rendering each frame with the opposing gpu. Enduro fix disables iGPU completely, solving the problem. This was probably answered earlier, but I couldn't find it.

Finally I can play Valkyria Chronicles and Dark Souls!

 

Thanks John and Har3inger. Had tried the registry tweak, just tried reinstalling Samsung Settings - both to no avail. Running out of ideas now...
I guess increased power consumption after waking up from sleep could be caused by the brightness having jumped back to full (or at least half, no way to tell right now), and I can't turn it down - so that is that. Not much point in low power draw when you can't put the laptop to sleep, after all.

 

Display brightness does make a substantial difference to the power drain.

Have you tried setting your preferred brightness levels (both mains and batttery power) in the BIOS? Did you also try enabling / disabling the adaptive brightness option in Settings in case it changes something? However, it's looking likely that a reboot is needed to get the brightness settings in the BIOS to apply. Another workaround to try is hibernation instead of sleep.

John

 

My touchscreen do not response after Recent win update(not sure if it because the update), the HID touchscreen shows ok in Device Manager ,

 

Which driver version are you running? Enduro fix doesn't seem to do anything for 14.12.

 

Omega drivers 14.12. Downloaded from AMD's website. So far these are the best performing drivers I've seen yet. The Enduro fix doesn't perform its' normal function of forcing DX9 games to use the dedicated card, as that and the unplug&replug problem are already fixed in this version. It does however fix the flickering problem that seems to only occur in games that use multiplatform engines (console ports). I was a little surprised as it was the last thing I tried, but boy am I glad not to be running Valkyria Chronicles in a window as it has no built in borderless mode.

 

Are you sure it's the Enduro fix? I can't conclusively say that the fix actually does anything for me, or it's being applied correctly at all.

Omega 14.12's worked for Valkyria Chronicles right out of the box for me, without patching with the enduro fix.

 

Yeah I don't think that the Enduro fix does anything for me aswell on 14.12.

I still have problems with 100% disk usage and low fps though, even when I overclock the graphics card to 850/1250/20% power limit. Like, I can't watch streams on Twitch.tv on source while maintaining 60FPS on League of Legends for instance. FPS just drops down to 30, and it's kind of frustrating.

Just to note, I also play LoL at the lowest settings.

 

My touchscreen do not response after Recent win update(not sure if it because the update), the HID touchscreen shows ok in Device Manager ,samsung setup also turn on! can you help?

 

I'd play with lowering your overclock settings. This laptop tends to have problems with the PSU being inadequate, and seems to favor giving power to the CPU at the cost of throttling the GPU down (this is also my guess for why you need to occasionally plug/unplug your laptop to restore max GPU clocks) The more juice you make your GPU pull, the more likely it is to throttle itself.

At least, when I tried overclocking my card and stress testing it, pushing the power limit higher made the GPU bounce between high and medium 3D clocks instead of sitting at high 3D clocks.

 

That didn't change anything at all.
I noticed that the Intel card had a bigger usage % than AMD, so I applied Endufo fix again to see if that helped, but to no avail.

 

Hi all

I cannot find a function to search the thread so if this has already been answered I'd be grateful if someone could direct me to the information.

My touchscreen has stopped working and I bought the machine in July 2013 so I believe it's njow out of warranty.

Samsung Support have remoted onto the machine and stated the touchscreen is 'disconnected'.

I have replaced the hDD with an SSD. The screen has worked since then but I wondered if there is some sort of physical connection I may have knocked loose?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks
jmdon

 

Hello all,

I just recently purchased this laptop (the one with no touchscreen and the AMD 8870M) from a local dealer. So I have just a few questions and would really appreciate you taking your time to reply to them.

1. Windows 8 or Windows 8.1

2. I bought an SSD alongside my laptop, namely the Samsung 840 PRO 256GB. How should I proceed in installing it? (is the guide up to date and since there are two guides which one should I use).

3. Are the Samsung partitions worth keeping?

4. Since I'm using an SSD what do you recommend in regards to TRIM, defragmenting and other windows features

5. Is there any news on the bloatware front? (there is a nice list but I'm worried about it being up to date or not).

6. Which drivers should be updated manually (from manufacturer page) and which ones should be updated through SWUpdate (Intel HD, WIFI, Audio)

7. Which AMD drivers are best recommended at this point? (and is Enduro fix needed for your recommendation?)

8. If I want a game to run on the dedicated GPU do I always need to turn the silent mode off?

9. Any thing else I should know?

Quite a lot of questions, sorry but wanted to nail everything down.

Many many Thanks!

 

There have been too many similar posts for me to quote everyone without making this a full page, so I'll do a quick list.

Flickering and Enduro fix: Are you two using an 8770m model? I have an 8770m and for me 14.12 both Omega and stock had flickering in some games, then applying enduro fix stopped it. It could just be my system, but everything else has been working perfectly for months and my system is as close to a perfect example of the suggestions in this thread as you can get, as I've been following it and keeping up on fixes. For me switchable graphics now works as intended for the most part. Also I am not using the Samsung provided Intel driver, but rather the one from Intel's site. Some people have had issues with it, but for me it seems to work better with the other fixes I have applied.

Hard drive usage: Did you remove the Intel storage manager app? Was suggested many months ago but not added to the OP yet, fixed it for me and many others.

Overclock throttling: The power usage issue only applies to models with the 8870m. The 8770m uses far less power than the 8870m and comes nowhere near maxing the identical PSU. It actually appears to be the overly conservative temperature profile that is built right into the vbios. You can sit and watch the clocks throttle every time it hits about 70, which is well below what would actually damage the card. Since Samsung was one of only a couple of OEMs to order this card, makes sense that they got it customized to keep heat and power low since they assumed serious gamers would opt for the 8870m version. Then they only released that one in a few territories, making that point moot.

If someone wanted to make a custom vbios, I would recommend tracking one down from an 8790m and using its stock settings as a starting point when modifying the 8770m vbios.

 

I'm on the 8870, which is now an R9 M270X, ever since the newer 14.X catalyst drivers decided that they were the same thing (they are).

I'm on an 840 Evo and running RST. Haven't really noticed any problems to speak of. Back when I still used the 5400rpm HDD the thing would tend to thrash easily if I wanted to multitask, but I assumed it's because the drive was supposed to be that slow.

On a similar note, is anyone having trouble getting the intel HD4000 to clock up above 350Mhz core? GPUz says it never budges from 350 ever, and I feel like sometimes youtube lags because of it (unless you do some driver hackery, you can't get flash/html5 to use the AMD gpu).

 

Hello Flex808, welcome to NBR.

See my comments below on some of your questions.

 

does anyone have an issue when running many games in a non native resolution not upscaling? the GPU scaling just isnt happening when i run games, and on this machine most games run like garbage on native resolution, and run decent on lower. Is there a fix? Sorry if im asking a question that has already been answered

 

On some driver versions there is an option to do it with the GPU, under the displays tab. If you are using 14.12 however, the option seems to be missing from this version. You can either roll back to older versions or use some kind of third party scaling software to force it. I was having the same problem with Dying Light, then decided to just plug it into my TV anyway.

 

@Flex808
8. If I want a game to run on the dedicated GPU do I always need to turn the silent mode off?

I think this one is tricky. I noticed that if I turn silent mode on before running the game/app, it leaves the radeon off. However, if it's turned on during gaming, the gpu doesn't turn off, it usually just dips in performance (although not that much).

Anyways, if your 8870 is working, don't expect the fans to be silent. I think the card uses around 20W at idle and can go up to 40-45W if you're seriously pushing it (BF4, Far cry 4, ME: shadow of mordor, etc.)

But then again, things I mentioned may be different on your machine because of the drivers. I have Enduro fix enabled alongside 14.10whql.

 

I actually upgraded because i was having the issue, hoping that may fix it... it didnt. its unfortunate. Seems like the option to force scaling is gone from CCC. i was hoping there was a hotfix or something.

Anyways, i appreciate the response. If anyone knows of any solution, we would be grateful.

 

Hey guys,

my laptop NP880Z5E seems to be running quite hot lately. Fan is running quite loud with CPU only 10%?
What could cause this?

 

Hi... I just purchased a Samsung SSD 840 EVO. I followed the instructions on how to install it and everything is going well.


I decided to reinstall my ATIV 8 to its factory settings but every time i do that it kept saying it "cannot find the recovery environment"... How can I fix this?? Thanks

 

The recovery environment is on the HDD that you removed.

See this thread for how you can move it over. Discussion here may also be relevant.

John

 

As John mentioned, unless you used either the Disk Copy or Bootable Factory Image features in Samsung Recovery Solution, it won't be working on the new SSD. Only if you put the original HDD back in.

If you have patience, tenacity and some technical skill, you can re-install SRS on the new SSD using information in the first link John gave you ( this). Everything on the SSD will be wiped in the process. Basically you create an Admin Tool USB using the image files shared by member dosibox (making sure you select the correct SRS version). Then boot that Admin Tool to create a working (but empty) SRS. Next you copy all files and folders from the SAMSUNG_REC2 partition on the original HDD (in a USB dock) to the SAMSUNG_REC2 partition on the the SSD. This will put the original factory image on it. You can do the same with the SAMSUNG_REC partition, but it shouldn't be necessary. Finally you boot that Recovery (F4) and Restore the factory Windows installation.

 

Have you looked inside to see if the cooling system has got clogged up by fluff? If not, then it's time to do so. Notebooks with air inlets on the bottom (which most have) tend to act like vacuum cleaners but, unfortunately, few manufacturers make it easy to empty out the muck that usually builds up where the fan blows through the grille on the heatsink.

If the cooling system is clean then the next step is to repaste the CPU / GPU.

John

 

The touch keyboard in windows 8 forces 1:1 pixel resolutions no matter what you do. The way I worked around it is disabling the touch screen in device manager (it's one of the USB devices), which keeps the keyboard off by default. However, ever since Windows 8.1 the keyboard appears after resuming from sleep, which screws everything up until next restart. In that case, there is an executable for the keyboard you rename to disable the keyboard permanently. You lose the keyboard without restoring the exec (but honestly why would you ever need it), but gpu scaling will work. I think the intel GPU control panel lets you control whether you want to scale up or stretch to fill screen when you select a non-native res (it saves the setting when you return to native res)

I've never tested killing the windows touch keyboard without disabling the touchscreen, so I don't know if that specific configuration works or not.

 

Uff... my 770Z5E-S01 have a bad issue, I have ghosting/image retention all over the corners of my display
I will go to my assistance center, I'm in warranty period, I hope they will replace the screen..

 

Some other people have had their screens replaced under warranty for the same reason so you should be successful if you are still in warranty.

John

 

OH MY STARS IT WORKED. I feel like a complete fool, it's so simple if you solve the right problem. On my other PCs, the panel has built in scaling, so it just overrides when an app is in fullscreen at lower res. Either that or the option was still in the driver menu. This is the first time I've had a system without either, so I didn't even realize that was what was making my other attempts fail. I wish I could give you like 80k rep for this.

 

Thanks again to har3inger's solution to screen scaling issues, I am now able to play Dying Light. The game is only kinda so-so cool, but I am running it on an almost 2 year old laptop with an 8770m. Having to use borderless windowed mode was costing me just enough performance to make the difference between playable and unplayable.

 

wow. great info, will try this.

 

Rya

Ryan, i was unable to get it to work on my end. I disabled the keyboard by renaming both:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink\TabTip.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink\tab\tibband.dll

It completely removed the touch keyboard, while still having the touchscreen work fine, but no scaling happens.

Any ideas? What did you do to get it to work?

Thanks guys

 

Hello, my model is NP780Z5E and I have AMD Radeon 8870M as a switchable graphics card.

Recently I bought a few newer games and I want to know what graphics update I should download? I don't think I have updated my graphics card since I got the computer 2 years ago because SW Update never has one.

Thanks for any help!

 

Just FYI: I got my panel replaced on warantee for this exact reason. The replacement they gave me had significantly worse ghosting that has been improving over time. I would say the ghosting is a model defect that you can't avoid, but that it tends to get better over time in my experience.

Try turning off the touchscreen to get scaling to work. It's one of the USB input devices under device manager. There's 3 or 4 of them and you have to guess which one it is by checking which one makes your touchscreen stop working. The settings saves itself across resets and you can turn it back on without restarting the computer, unlike the Samsung Settings option which requires you to log out.

Earlier I was frustrated about how the intel GPU was always locked to 350 core clock. Apparently the later intel drivers gimp it all up, and the OEM intel drivers are the best. They even allow overclocking to 1200 core clock if you force the computer to ignore the dedicated gpu. It's fairly useless outside of 60fps youtube playback, but hey, that's something that's definitely nice to have. The 14.12 WHQL drivers are by far the best for the 8870.

 

Hello, sorry for my English; I have a terrible problem hopefully help me: yesterday to make as always load my PC (NP770Z5E) battery suddenly became 99%, let it charge a little more because I thought it was a mistake battery meter, later My PC suddenly trailed off, wait a moment before charging back and do it again looked like it was quite normal but was returning load to 99%, probe with smart battery calibration, it was downloading, you usually up to about 87% and then turn off, reset the system and still not solved please I need help;
I am currently charging my battery and is charging too fast

 

Run a program such as BatteryInfoView to check the health of your battery.

Very fast changes in the charge level either indicate a need for recalibration (you indicate you have done this - did you use the facility in the BIOS?) or that the battery is dying in which case the fully charged capacity will be much less than the design capacity.

John

 

use the smart battery calibration option from the menu that appears by pressing f2, now loaded to 80% (with the battery care option enabled) in about 40 minutes but when you turn it shows me 99%; proves that tool

 

I forgot to mention that turns off suddenly, just downloaded this tool on another pc and suddenly turn off, so I'm loading again and indicates that the battery is at 0% when moments ago was 90%

 

results while charge:
==================================================
Description : Battery Name
Value : SR Real Battery
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Manufacture Name
Value : SAMSUNG Electronics
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Serial Number
Value : 123456789
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Manufacture Date
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Power State
Value : Charging, AC Power
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Current Capacity (in %)
Value : 7.0%
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Current Capacity Value
Value : 955 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Full Charged Capacity
Value : 13.644 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Designed Capacity
Value : 91.718 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Battery Wear Level
Value : 14.9%
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Voltage
Value : 14.175 millivolts
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Charge/Discharge Rate
Value : 10.400 milliwatts
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Chemistry
Value : Lithium Ion
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Low Battery Capacity (1)
Value : 409 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Low Battery Capacity (2)
Value : 409 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Critical Bias
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Number of charge/discharge cycles
Value : 415
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Battery Temperature
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Remaining battery time for the current activity (Estimated)
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Full battery time for the current activity (Estimated)
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Remaining time for charging the battery (Estimated)
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Total time for charging the battery (Estimated)
Value :
==================================================

 

From the info above:
Description : Full Charged Capacity Value : 13.644 mWh
Description : Designed Capacity Value : 91.718 mWh
Which shows that the current capacity is only around 15% of the design capacity, which I would consider to be indicative of a battery close to death and it could well behave erratically.

However, I would first recommend that you turn off Battery Life Extender and then leave the battery to charge overnight before re-running the calibration in the BIOS then fully recharging the battery again and finally checking the battery properties again. Having BLE enabled could well cause the calibration to malfunction because it needs to know where 100% charge is. It could be using 80% of an inaccurate value.

John

 

Oki doki, thanks for the help I will this rigth now

 

Sorry, I made a mistake published values while carrying the battery, these are the current results, even so I think the battery wear level value indicates something wrong

==================================================
Description : Battery Name
Value : SR Real Battery
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Manufacture Name
Value : SAMSUNG Electronics
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Serial Number
Value : 123456789
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Manufacture Date
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Power State
Value : Discharging
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Current Capacity (in %)
Value : 92.0%
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Current Capacity Value
Value : 79.499 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Full Charged Capacity
Value : 86.412 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Designed Capacity
Value : 91.718 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Battery Wear Level
Value : 94.2%
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Voltage
Value : 14.421 millivolts
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Charge/Discharge Rate
Value : -14.857 milliwatts
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Chemistry
Value : Lithium Ion
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Low Battery Capacity (1)
Value : 2.592 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Low Battery Capacity (2)
Value : 2.592 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Critical Bias
Value :
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Number of charge/discharge cycles
Value : 415
==================================================

 

In that case the wear isn't substantial.

However, still run the battery calibration with BLE disabled.

John

 

John:
I did what you suggested, here are the results:

==================================================
Description : Power State
Value : Discharging
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Current Capacity (in %)
Value : 97.0%
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Current Capacity Value
Value : 72.055 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Full Charged Capacity
Value : 74.284 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Designed Capacity
Value : 91.718 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Battery Wear Level
Value : 81.0%
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Voltage
Value : 16.614 millivolts
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Charge/Discharge Rate
Value : -9.990 milliwatts
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Chemistry
Value : Lithium Ion
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Low Battery Capacity (1)
Value : 2.229 mWh
==================================================

==================================================
Description : Low Battery Capacity (2)
Value : 2.229 mWh
==================================================

 

Thank you. So the fully charged capacity has dropped a bit as a result of the recalibration but is plenty enough to be usable.

Does the battery now behave normally for both charge and discharge or does it still show the problems you previously described?

John

 

John: for now I still have the rear cargo recalibration, I think the problem is fixed, I'm currently connected by wi-fi with 58% of battery, 3 hours and 13 minutes remaining, you think it's okay?

 

That looks OK if you can get around 3 hours. However, the projected run time is based on the reported remaining battery charge and the current rate of discharge. If the battery still has problems then the actual run time will be much shorter.

John

 

Thank you very much for your advice, everything seems back to normal saved my life seriously thank you very much. Atte.Marco

 

When you are comfortable that the battery is behaving correctly then you can re-enable the Battery Life Extender unless you need the extra battery run time.

John

 

Hey guys, sorry to bump an n older discussion, but this kind of got buried under the last battery issue. Does anyone know of a fix for this that will still keep the touch screen active (dont care about touch keyboard)