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

Has anyone tried replacing the keys with black ones? I think changing them shouldn't be too hard, I just don't know where can they be bought. The only problem might be the special keys with lights like F5, F12 and Caps Lock but I'd physically drill a whole through a black key to obtain the same functionality if that's what it takes

 

This is why the official drivers have to come through Samsung who have to ensure that everything works with the Samsung hardware and drivers. The problem is that Samsung usually take weeks to do the necessary when users want the finished product in days. I don't know if any other notebook manufacturers are better in this respect.

Are you suggesting changing only the key caps? In theory this should be possible if one can figure out how the caps clip onto the mechanism and can do the removal / replacement without breaking anything. It's an exercise i would first want to practice using a dead keyboard.

John

 

I was wondering if Intellimemory should be removed now that I have an SSD installed? I read it was used to speed up the HDD only, not any drive installed. Is that right?

 

Intellimemory will still make things go faster (since RAM is faster than even an SSD) but it won't be as much of an improvement anymore, so it becomes harder to justify having it around.

 

Mmmm ok. I'm happy with the system's actual speed so I'm gonna leave it as it is. Thanks

 

Yes, only the caps. I saw a video where someone took out the keys of a macbook and I think it might be a similar mechanism. Do you know where can I buy spare key caps?

 

Come on them guys, we've all had this baby for a while now... what kinds of cases/sleeves are people using for it? I'm struggling to find any that are suitable and not ugly.

 

The only people who sell key caps are people selling dead keyboards for parts. However, we don't know if your keycaps are interchangeable with any older notebooks. The 15" Series 9 might be compatible. However, I'm not going to pull a key off mine to see how it fits. It would be an expensive experiment if something breaks.

John

 

I think that your best chance would be to wait some weeks and then buy an Ativ Book 8 keyboard (of possible): it SHOULD be the same as the chronos' one, just black

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Sorry all if this is a re-post -- I scanned the thread back to April 28 and didn't see it -- I was doing some searching on the Ativ Book 8 and came across this:



I wonder if it's what it claims to be. Anyone speak Hungarian? Very nice though the palmrest and lid look a bit more fingerprinty than my older Series 7. Those black keys are definitely a sight for sore eyes (I also hope they'll bring back the semi-transparent undertones?.

Here's the corresponding website: http://tech2.hu/samsung-ativ-book-8-notebook-bemutato-videoval-298934

-Matt

 

You're right Matt, it DOES actually look a bit more fingerprinty. Still, I am glad Samsung rediscovered the excellent black keyboard of its previous Series 7 models. It tempts me to get back in the market.

BTW good to see you in this thread. Participants here are doing a fine job finding solutions for the 2013 models.

For those who don't know gadgetrants, I recommend you check out the 2012 Series 7 Chronos Z5C owners lounge (also known as the Series 7 lovers' thread). It's huge, but if you use the Search Thread feature (or plain Google) you may find discussions and solutions to known issues that 2013 model owners are only just now running into.

 

Hey all,

After lurking the discussion thread from pretty much its inception, I decided to give this laptop a try since waiting for the ATIV 8 (after already waiting for any sort of stable, press-accompanied release for the 780z5e) would be a study in frustration. And the silver honestly looks much nicer to me. However, I've got a bit of a novice question now--how hot do laptops normally run? I've done some research online and the the answers are all over the place, though many agree that different laptops are unique in what temps they run at and what they can handle. I'm downloading Guild Wars 2 onto this laptop at the moment to take a look at how the laptop plays the game, and the mobo and processor are both sitting in the 60-65C range from just the downloading--not even the playing. Is that unnaturally hot? I'd consider that a bit worrying for my desktop, but I've never owned a laptop before--especially not one cramming as many HQ parts into such a slim design as this one. What temperatures have others come across?

 

Temperatures under heavy gaming are the real test. Temperatures in the 60s are OK. I'm guessing that the fan probably switches from slow to fast at 70C and you wouldn't enjoy having the extra fan noise to keep the temperatures under moderate activity lower. Moderately high internal temperatures are not a cause for concern unless the exterior gets uncomfortably hot.

John

 

I tried playing the game for a bit (it's been an in-out kind of day, so I can't spend the time I'd like to really test things out), and the mobo/processor hit a peak of 80C. You were right--the fans kick in at 70C, though the noise is not a problem at all. If I'm doing something taxing enough to heat things up like that, then chances are it's not peace and quiet that I need. While they hit a peak of 80C, I should mention that the exterior does get uncomfortably hot on the base of the laptop right around where it joins to the screen--both on the top and the bottom of the base.

EDIT: actually, the entire bottom fifth of the screen feels quite hot to the touch, too.

Is that something to be concerned about?

The mobo/processor seem to idle at 40-45, while the HDD idles at 30, which I believe is fairly normal.

 

What I do and recommend to all laptop owners is to lift the back a bit when it's under a heavy load. Have you tried that? It ensures the vents have proper airflow. Even in the most intensive games my CPU and GPU never hit 75°C.

It's normal the bottom of your screen is a bit hot since that is where te hot air comes out, near the hinge.

 

I agree. A laptop's temperature will be greatly influenced by how it is situated. You need a hard surface. Playing games with a laptop on your lap can be death.

It is hard to say what is normal. My previous laptop had a great (for its time) video card. The card played Civ V on high settings. However, it overheated and shut down in less than 5 minutes of play. That was with core temperatures reaching 100 deg C.

Without some sort of cooling process going on, the GPU of any computer will overheat when playing the latest generation graphics heavy games. The question is therefore not how hot it is getting, but whether the cooling processes are working. If the fans kicked in as they were supposed to at 70 and kept it from going much over 80, then that sounds like everything is working fine to me. That is, like John says, as long as those temperatures are only occurring internally and not near your fingers or whatever surface you are working on.

 

Adorama has the Ative Book 6 in stock:

Samsung ATIV Book 6 Series 15.6" Full HD Notebook Computer NP680Z5E-X01S

 

Is the battery in the NP7805ZE (Chronos) a "4-cell" as well?

I used my machine on battery power yesterday from about 11 AM (starting with an 80% charge) until 8 PM (~9 hours), but that includes 1 hour of sleep time, thus 8 hours of real usage.
Brightness was at 50%, wifi on, bluetooth off, for mostly email (outlook), a few Word documents, PowerPoint, IE, plus had an active VPN/remote desktop connection going, and I had an estimated 56 minutes remaining in battery power. That's pretty sweet if you ask me!

 

No, the series 7 chronos has an 8-cell, 91Whr battery. And yes, battery life is amazing. If you turn on silent mode it's even longer.

 

I'm using the one that I got from the Windows 2008 R2 RDP Airlift. It's just a tad snug, which I appreciate since I don't want my notebook flapping, even in the case. I'm guessing you probably would have a hard time getting one these days.

My backpack from TechEd 2011 also fits nicely and doesn't look too bad. Of course those aren't available anymore, either.

Seriously though, it's a 15.6" laptop. There are easily a thousand different bags available, so finding one that you like and that fits shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Not much selection in Canada - what BB and FS offer in shop looks like a picked over mess in a junk yard. But I'm using this one: Brenthaven ProStyle MacBook Pro 15" Sleeve Case (2187101) - Midnight : Sleeves - Best Buy Canada (It's super soft inside!)

I do have silent mode turned on. My touch screen could be eating up more power compared to yours, no?
EDIT: I also started with an 80% charge as I have the BLE enabled.

 

See, I want to get an 15 inch incase one, but they are designed for MBP, so didn't think they would fit as the Chronos is a tad too long I think,

 

I had a 13" incase for my 14" Lenovo laptop... similar to the current Brenthaven I have for the chronos: I find the first time in the sleeve it's a bit tight, but they stretch pretty quick (while staying snug).

 

What is energy saver feature in samsung settings? It says something abut co2 saving so I assume it extends the autonomy.
So to maximize autonomy we have to set 3 different things: 1 battery saver profile, 2 energy saver feature in samsung settings, 3 silent mode in samsung settings.
Do you confirm?

 

Which program would you guys recommend to keep temps, fps, etc monitored? Something similar to Ati tray tools would be nice.. with the on screen fps and temperature count that could be displayed while playing games.

 

It is actually quite simple -- and quite convenient in my opinion:

1) For normal operation, don't do anything. The default Power Profile is Samsung Optimized which you can tweak to your liking. I personally changed Max processor state while on battery from the default 50% to 99%, which allows the CPU to run faster (even on battery) but not to kick in TurboBoost (which is the most power hungry mode).

2) For quiet operation and/or to extend battery life while at a coffee shop, enable Silent Mode by pressing Fn-F11. This will switch to the Power Saver profile AND it will cap the CPU to a low speed in order to keep temps down and the fan off.

Of course you can tweak the Power Saver profile to your liking too. The most important difference with this profile is System cooling policy being Passive -- meaning CPU speed will be throttled if temps get too high, instead of turning on or increasing fan speed. Active system cooling policy (as used in the Samsung Optimized profile) is of course the opposite.

You can also set and adjust Silent Mode in Settings (Fn-F1) on the General tab. If you're not sure whether Silent Mode is active just look in the taskbar tray which Power Profile is selected -- or open Settings (Fn-F1).

View attachment 95687

Again, Fn-F11 toggles Silent Mode on/off. It's just an easy way to switch between normal and power frugal mode. And you can tweak each of these to your liking by editing the respective Power Profiles.

3) The Eco Mode selectable on the Power Management tab in Settings, is simply an even deeper power saving state, where Bluetooth and WiFi radios are turned off (you can choose the latter). Personally, I never use that; two modes are enough for me.

4) Regardless of which Power Profile or mode you're in, does Settings (Fn-F1) display your current Power consumption and CO2 emissions on the Power Management tab.

5) If you want a power frugal mode that doesn't cap the CPU speed (as Silent Mode does) simply switch to the Power Saver profile manually and tweak its Max processor state to whatever you like. Or you could even create a new, custom profile based on the Power Saver profile.

While updating the power profiles, make sure to also set Wireless power settings to ensure WiFi performance: Under Wireless Adapter Settings change the Power Saving Mode to Maximum Performance for both battery and plugged in. Personally I use Low Power Saving in my Power Saver profile -- knowing that it will slow my WiFi down when I toggle Silent Mode ON. But it saves a little juice.

My settings are described in more detail in this post and this post (just below).

The thread linked below covers Silent Mode and power features more generally:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/706300-samsung-easy-settings-bug-feature.html

This subject comes up almost daily as new owners start using their Sammies. I hope this post clarifies a bit

 

Hello,

I'm sorry if this problem's come up before, but I'm a bit short on leisure time at the moment (not really a smart idea to buy this while I'm busy through most of the return window, but alas!). I'm going to try to go through this thread ten pages a day, but I figured I'd ask this now. When the laptop's unplugged during a game, quality and framerate take a noticeable dive. I fiddled with the power-saving options, but it didn't seem to do anything for me. When I plugged back in, things were back to a good quality. I was just wondering if any owners can confirm whether this is actually a power-profile-advanced-options thing or throttling. The game itself isn't very demanding--Path of Exile. And thanks to pranktank for the suggestion! My laptop was always against a hard glass surface, but putting a small deck of cards under the base still helped a bit. My temps now never exceed 75C, though I am still really unused to touching the base of the screen or the join and feeling how hot it is!

 

@darshie: The entire system tries to reduce power consumption when you run on battery. The simplest way to override that is to switch to the High Performance profile -- but it will run down your battery fast as it keeps everything running at max speed, even when it doesn't need to.

A more balanced approach is to change the On Battery settings in the Samsung Optimized profile. Most importantly, change Max processor state (under Processor power management) from the default 50% to 99% as described in my last post. This will already do a lot. But also change the On Battery setting for ATI/AMD/Nvidia/Intel Graphics and the Wireless Adapter Settings.

It's really a pretty quick fix: Just open Control Panel - Power Options - Edit Plan Settings for the profile you want to change, then Change advanced power settings.

Below are my settings. You choose whichever you want. Faster just uses more battery.

 

Anyone getting irregular wifi disconnection/reconnection?

 

Is it this problem discussed in the Intel forum. If so, go to Intel support and get the latest driver for the 8235 WiFi. It has fixed the connectivity problems for most (but not all) people.

John

 

Thanks John. But I think you mean Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 ....

My wifi drivers were updated to version 15.6.1.20 via SW Update. Is this the same as the one on the Intel support page which state the latest version is 15.6.1 dated 19 Mar 2013?

 

Is there any way to disconnect the battery while on AC power? When my laptop is low on battery I'd like to use it without thinking that I'm reducing the battery life.. would be great to have an option to disconnect the battery while on AC power in order to preserve its life.. Or maybe it's not that bad to use the machine while the battery is charging??

Answer (?): A portable device should be turned off while charging. This allows the battery to reach the threshold voltage unhindered and reflects the correct saturation current responsible to terminate the charge. A parasitic load confuses the charger.

Also, which product would be best to clean the aluminium surface of this computer?

edit: regarding the battery life, I found a thread in the forum that explains a lot about it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...icles/444615-remove-battery-when-not-use.html

(in case someone else is seeking infos)

 

I did a driver uninstallation 30 minutes ago and rebooted windows....

Windows automatically installed driver version 15.5.6.48 dated 4 Oct 2012 on my laptop.... It is currently running quite stable definitely holding the connection better than SW Update version....

 

How do you monitor your laptop's temps?? I'd like to have something in the taskbar that shows the gpu and cpu's temps, or even something visible while gaming.... Why has ATT not received any updates since 2011? It was such a great and handy tool.... Now I'm confused about what to use, I don't like having to run the tool to see the temps.....

I'd like to try ATT but it can screw up a few things if not compatible, so, if anyone has any info about its compatibility with the 8870m, please let me know.

 

I stand corrected: My fingers are getting worse at typing what my brain is thinking.

AFAIK 15.6.1. is the latest driver (Samsung perhaps up-to-date for a change). In that case, read this thread for other WiFi debugging tips plus there's the extreme measure that worked for someone recently: Turn off n mode (perhaps his computer kept changing its mind about which mode to use).

I would ignore all that other advice about the battery maintenance. A lot of it reflects left over thinking from the optimum ways to maintain the health of nickel charged batteries.
The first thing to do with a Samsung notebook is to enable Battery Life Extender in (Easy) Settings. This limits the charge to 80% and thereby avoids the part of the charging cycle (90 to 100%) that causes most damage to the battery chemistry. Then, once the battery reaches 80% charge and is left plugged in, there will be no more charging until the charge level drops several per cent.

I also think it best to recharge a battery while it is in use. This usually limits the charge rate. A slower charge generates less heat and potential damage. The charger hasn't got a clue where the power is going. The battery charge management is done by by the BIOS in coordination with a chip inside the battery.

Finally, try to avoid fully draining the battery except for the occasional calibration (there's an option inside the BIOS to do this). Sucking out the last bit of power can also cause wear but is necessary from time to say (say every six months) so the chip in the battery knows the full capacity range full to empty.

Samsung's battery technology seems to be working in my NP900X4C: 0% wear after 9 months. The slightly older NP900X3B, however, had wear problems for many people here (myself included) and Samsung have changed the battery to another model.

I would use a damp cloth with a hint of liquid detergent. That's my standard cleaning solution for everything including screen and keyboard.

John

 

Thanks again John....

The 15.6.1.20 from SW update was just not cutting it for me.............

Anyway, I did another driver uninstall cos the 15.5.6.48 was starting to get unstable after a while.......

and strangely after rebooting, the driver version Win 8 automatically reinstalled for me became 15.4.1.20 !!!

Been getting max bars of connectivity as of 20 mins of testing.... fingers crossed this is the one......

 

I also had disconnections with the latest, but I think it was someone earlier in this thread who pointed out that the newest working driver right now is 15.6.0.x (I think 19, though I would highly doubt that Intel would have more than one release for grabs of the 15.6.0.x). That one seems to be working fine for me, without drops, albeit Skype is behaving terribly. I think that's a connection issue, though, so I'll be tinkering with that tomorrow.

Thanks to Dannermand for the tips. I'd already changed all the graphics options, but I'd never considered the wireless. Perhaps it was that? I have trouble thinking that would give me a lower framerate, but whatever the case, I made a new plan based off of high performance and things were better.

 

Thank you. I'm definitely going to use the battery life extender. So as a reference I could keep 25-80% as a range for the battery charge. I used to let it go to 3% before plugging in, but now I'll stay on those levels.


Ok now I only have to find an utility to keep the temps monitored

 

Correct, but don't unnecessarily run down the battery. I still come across people who intentionally run down their battery on a daily basis (a left-over from the days of nickel based batteries) when they could be plugged into the mains. Then they wonder why the capacity is substantially reduced after a year or two.

Look at HWiNFO or HWmonitor. Get the latest beta for the former. There is a switch to allow / disable polling of the dedicated GPU.

John

 

Hi guys, I've decided to get a Samsung 840 pro 256gb ssd and from what I have read from the previous thread.

May I check if it's better to clone the whole stock HDD samsung recovery to the new ssd? Or its best to do a image backup to a external bootable hard disk and restore the image from there?

I was thinking to clone the stock HDD recovery to the new ssd and do a fresh install from there. Will there be any performance difference?

Also to check, how big is the Samsung recovery partition in whole?

Thanks a lot guys!

 

Hoping someone has a cure for what ails me. After installing my SSD (thanks again for all the help I recvieved on these boards), and running SW update, everything has been runnign fast and smooth except Civ V. Every so often I will tap the next turn button and it will crash to the desktop. If I repeat the moves that led up to the crash exactly it will crash again. If I change a previous move I seem to be able to go forward till it happens again. I have changed the auto save feature to be every turn rather than every 10 and now do not worry about having to replay a significant number of turns. But it is a pain to get back into the game as much as every 15 or 20 minutes (sometimes can go hours till a crash) and there have been a couple of times when I have had to make less then ideal changes to strategy to avaid the crash.

I have completely unistalled Civ V and Stream (twice) from the computer and reistalled it, which has not helped. This has led me to believe that it is not a software issue, but rather something going on with the way my computer is running the software (could be wrong)

I also late last night after reading some of this board, set the Civ V in catalyst to high performance, but have not played enough since to determine if this helped.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Phil

 

Based on suggestions made to me - I believe cloneing the drive will result in not being able to use the f4 recovery function. I used a USB to had the samsung recovery software make an image of the disk to then USB drive and then used that to recover the original install to the new SSD. It was pretty straight forward and took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. If you search on my name on teh discussion board for this laptop 90% of my questions and responses deal with this question.

 

Got the new Series 7 Chronos and sometimes notice erratic performance of the touchpad - has anyone else had this, it seems to happen when the machine comes out of sleep. A reboot or resetting the touchpad settings usually fixes it, but its very annoying. All the newer Samsung Touchpad update haven't cured it permanently.

 

@boiboii

Yeah, like padler said, it's better to make a factory image on the usb stick (which should be about 16 GB), install the SSD and then recover the image on the disk. Took half an hour to me too, with no issues at all.

Just check the tutorial in the first page of the thread to be sure that you do the BIOS configuration as well, in order to allow the drive to boot properly for the restore.

mine seems to be working fine!

 

What if I wish to retain the recovery f4 feature in bios? Is the even possible?

 

I believe the f4 function is bios. You use it before the system boots while showing the initial bios imiage. To retain that functionality, you need to burn the imiage using the samsung recovery program to a USB (need a 32GB one, 16 will be to small). Here are teh steps I followed:

Thansk for the reply - if I understand you correctly the steps I would follow would be

1. Recover to the factory settings using f4 and follow prompts.
2. make an image onto a 32GB USB stick runing from the Samsung recovery program.
3. Swap out the drive
4. Upon reboot go into f2 bios and set it to boot from the USB stick. (see other posts on how to do this)
5 Boot from the USB stick.
6. Use the Samsung Recovery Program to make and image on the new SSD
7. Reboot and f2 to bios to reset the boot priority back to the SSD
8 reload Civ V and Lightroom4 (optional)

 

F4 actually relies on a proprietary link stored in the partition table in order to boot the software on the Recovery Partition (SRS=Samsung Recovery Solution). That is why using 3rd party imaging and cloning programs normally causes F4 to be lost: These programs only clone/restore the physical partitions, but not that F4 link.

Using Samsung's own Recovery Software itself is the only known way to preserve the F4 link. EITHER by creating a bootable backup on a USB stick (as described by several posters in this thread, including the OP); OR by using a so-called USB Admin Tool, which must be created in Recovery Management Mode, as described in this post (that procedure is based on SRS5 but has been verified to work with SRS6 as well).

 

When I first received mine I notice how good the touchpad worked out of the box: very responsive, very fluid, and consistent. Then SW Update updated the driver. Since then I have also found it to be erratic and much less responsive. I haven't been able to solve this issue yet, but fiddling with the touchpad settings made it much more usable.

 

I am no gamer, so I am probably the last person who should answer this...

1) For temps, HWiNFO and HWmonitor -- as John described.

2) For framerates, I remember using FRAPS back in the days when I tested gaming performance on my old HP HDX18.

None of these will display in the taskbar tray. But FRAPS is (was) able to display an FPS overlay inside the game.

And that's probably as far as I should venture into this topic

 

I use msi afterburner, you can display gpu temps in the taskbar and in-game. You can also use it to show fps in game and other numbers.