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

Hello, I have a NP880Z5 with the screen brightness not working after the newest Windows 10 update. I had the issue before after upgrading to Windows 10, but was able to fix it with the Samsung Windows 10 brightness patch, but no such luck this time.

I have spent about 15 hours working on fixing it, here are the things I have tried.

1. Newest, old, and Samsung Update Installed drivers for the Intel 4000 (always cleaned out old Intel drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller in safe mode).

2. Newest, and some old 8870 drivers (always cleaned out old Intel drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller in safe mode).

3. Unistalled and re-installed Samsung Settings.

4. I already have the windows 10 brightness patch installed but I downloaded it again from Samsung update and manually ran it, it seemed to do nothing.

5. Messed around with all the power and display settings.

6. Showed hidden items in device manager and deleted the items under monitor and rescanned, as I read this fixed the issue on some laptops.

7. Rolled back to a restore point that said it was just before the latest Windows 10 update installed, but then the update was still there.

The only way I can get the brightness to work is if I go to device manager and under display adapters select the Intel 4000 and right click to update the drivers, and select to browse my computer for the drivers, then select to pick from a list on my computer and select the and install the Microsoft Basic Display Driver. The brightness will then work with that driver but performance is bad and it makes the 8870 stop being detected and so it will not work anymore.

Any help on this would be much appreciated as the screen is either super dim or super bright so I pretty much can not use the PC at this time.

 

First try the registry edit mentioned in the last post here.

If that doesn't work then look run Samsung Update and look for a Windows 10 brightness control patch. It easiest to use the Find Model feature and then, if your computer isn't listed for Windows 10, look for a similar model.

John

 

Awesome. Thank you John. You have been providing helpful info for 3+ years now for this laptop. Its absolutely rediculous that a reg edit is required to fix this. What is a typical user supposed to do? with

 

So I presume that the brightness problem was fixed?

The fix is mentioned somewhere in this forum but Google took me to that other place.

John

 

Wanted to post the solution provided on the link John Ratsey provided
Quote:

"I was struggling with the same problem with my Samsung 770Z5E for many many long monthes, and none of the possible solutions indicated so far worked for me. Until today, when I found a solution on another similar thread:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ics-4000/64c255eb-517f-44d7-8af3-b5cfd7c4b79d



In my case the problem was solved by setting the value of

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\000 1] "FeatureTestControl" to "f008". I'm using the latest Intel drivers."

In my case I have an external VGA, so I didn't had any luck wich 0000. In 0001 the wasn't any "FeatureTestControl" option, but in 0002 I had luck. As written above, many thanks to John for keeping us updated with solutions to our problems in so many years.

Great notebook by the way.

 

yes, that did the trick its back to being a good little laptop again

 

Hey guys so I finally bought myself a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD which I'm planning on putting into my laptop. I've had a look through this thread for information on this but I'm a little confused as to how to go about it.

I'm currently running Windows 10 and I want to do a clean install onto this drive. I have already backed up necessary files from my current HDD. Is it as simple as replacing the HDD with the SSD and booting Windows from a Flash Drive and installing? Would this install the necessary Recovery Partitions onto the SSD? Or do I need to put the existing Recovery Partitions onto a USB Drive myself by booting into Recovery with f4?

Any help you can provide is much appreciated! I'm very eager to remove the limitation that this 5400rpm HDD is imposing on my system!

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the Samsung recovery partitions and just go ahead with installing Win 10 from a bootable flash drive. You will need Samsung's Admin tool to create those in a form which the BIOS can find - there's a separate discussion about this. If you keep the HDD then you can always put it back in. Windows 10 may create its own recovery partition for backing up some system information.

In theory, the Windows 10 installer will recognise that you have already had Win 10 installed on the computer but you may wish to find the key using keyfinder software before you remove the HDD.

John

 

Hi there

I'm hoping one of the experts can help me with this huge and annoying issue. I'm gonna try to explain it as best as i can.

After the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, my PC wouldn't startup. It would show the Samsung logo and the Blue Windows logo, but then go to a blank screen. Nothing would work and the PC would run really loud (fans etc.) All that I can do is hold the power button and force a shut down, then boot into recovery and use Windows Startup repair (which doesn't always work, its a bit of a gamble). Restoring to an earlier point, refreshing the entire PC and trying to revert back to pre-update doesn't work. Anyway, even after MS released the next small update which was supposed to fix this issue (I researched it) I still had this problem, until I disabled my AMD graphics completely. I was busy with exams so it didn't affect me, but now I can't game. I tried using DDU to remove the driver completely, but it didn't work since Windows automatically installed the same driver. Downloading the latest driver myself from AMD's website always results in a crash (as soon as it starts installing). So what I have now is a PC that cannot use the AMD card without freezing or crashing. Is there any fix? I have time on my hands, so should i do a clean install?

 

Hi everyone... A week back my ATIV 8 had some problems loading whenever I turn it on. When my friend fixed it I noticed only the Intel HD Graphics 400 was working and every time we'd try to install the AMD through Samsung update the pc kept crashing and we'd end up reformatting. He and other pc guys said it was the motherboard and its either I replace it or purchase a new one.

Should I get a new motherboard or just sell it my laptop and get an ATIV 9? Thanks

 

That sounds like my problem.... is it really the motherboard?

 

I would personally blame Windows 10, particularly if you have installed the anniversary update. Getting the AMD graphics to work properly is difficult at the best of times. The only way to be sure if the problem is hardware or software is to reload the original factory image for Windows.

John

 

Okay, after two days sitting with it, I think it is the motherboard/AMD GPU that's gone.

Here's what I did:
1. Clean installed Anniversary update---- kept on crashing, no solution worked
2. Clean installed Windows 10 Build 1511----- first worked well, but as soon as Windows started installing AMD drivers, it crashed again. Managed to stop that and uninstalled the AMD card (in Device Manager), and since then I've tried multiple times both in Normal and Safe Mode to install old and new AMD drivers. PC kept freezing and crashing or failed to start up once installed.

I guess I can continue using the PC with Intel only (for work etc.)

But the repair... does anyone have an idea of how costly it may be? (Is it worth it to do it on a 3 year laptop or should I write it off?)

Thanks

 

This is now the 3rd time I've had to do the "featuretestcontrol" registry hack after an update. I now get nervous that something will happen after every update. I'm so glad I have subscribed to this forum because some of Samsung's updates eg brightness patch didn't work.

 

You can check Samsungparts.com to see if the mainboard is available but when I last looked the supply of parts for this generation of Samsung notebooks was limited.

The alternative is to watch ebay and other similar places for someone selling a working mainboard from a notebook which has died for other reasons. Of you may find that if parts are now scarce then the parts (other than the mainboard) from your notebook are worth enough to make a worthwhile contribution to something newer (hint: look in Dell Outlet for the XPS15 9550 / Precision 5510).

John

 

The battery on my 780Z5E is expanding an popping the chasse open. I'm considering getting one of the replacement batteries from Hong Kong off of eBay. Anybody have experience with these? In all other respects, my Samsung has shown more longevity than any laptop I have ever owned.

 

I would first try to get hold of Samsung, report that the battery is expanding and ask if is likely to explode. It may be long out of warranty and getting tired, but it shouldn't be expanding. If there is a potential safety issue arising from a manufacturing defect then Samsung should be offering to replace the battery irrespective of the warranty period.

I don't have recent experience of third party batteries but if they come from a reputable third party supplier I would expect them to be OK.

John

 

@Azharb17

The newest (16.9.1 and probably 16.9.2) AMD drivers don't play nice with Win10 AU. If you try to clean install them you will brick the laptop, as it will crash upon startup, as you've found out. AFAIK, Windows update will try to push either 16.9.2 WHQL or 16.9.1 WHQL onto you by default.

Solution is to install the 16.8.2 driver (or possibly earlier), then use Crimson to self-update/install over itself. At least for me, this worked for getting the most recent AMD drivers. From this point on, I wouldn't ever clean install AMD drivers unless you're feeling brave and have a copy of 16.8.2 lying around to fix the problem if it reoccurs.

 

I've just started having an issue with my NP780Z5E-S01. I believe the issue occurred after I installed new AMD drivers (I believe they were 16.9.2) which Windows 10 advised were available in the Action Center. Now I am unable to wake my computer from sleep (the screen just remains black) and I am forced to restart the computer by holding down the power button. In addition to this sometimes when I turn the computer on it will just hang on the black screen as well. Again by holding down the power button for a reset it will boot fine.

EDIT: I have now noticed that if left for a minute or 2 the screen will come on.

 

I have been having issues with these latest drivers as well. I found the following forum on the AMD website on which one users advises 16.7.2 is the earliest version that doesn't cause problems. I'm going to give this a try and will report back with my findings.

 

Sent an email to Samsung. While they expressed concern and advised me to urgently get the laptop in to a service center, they were clear that it was outside of the warranty period. They also gave me a link to find out if there are any certified Samsung repair shops near me which there are not and to take the laptop back to Best Buy otherwise. At worst, Best Buy might be able to get me a deal on a replacement battery, otherwise it'll be 3rd party seller on eBay. I was really hoping that the highlighting of my concern about a fire hazard would get a more generous response.

 

I have a power cord tip that melted while it was not connected to the computer, and it was way out of warranty. Try calling 1-800-522-7341 which is the number for Samsung Executive Customer Service, and they should be able to help. Definitely push the safety angle. It doesn't matter if it's out of warranty, it has an implied warranty not to ever explode, melt, or burn.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you think it will matter whether or not I am in Canada (eh?)? That's fantastic information if they can help.

 

Hey all, suddently my browser (chrome) runs at a much lower resolution than the rest of my programs. It feels zoomed in on everything, even though zoom is set to 100%. the bookmark bar is noticably bigger on screen too, bumping several items off the list. Does anyone know why this is happening, or how to fix? I dont see how to force hardware acceleration on programs anymore

 

My first thought: Check the program properties > Compatibility and see if "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings is enabled". Normally, none of the options on that tab should be selected unless you are running old software which is not scaling-aware.

John

 

Hello, I need some help please. After the inital update to Win10 my NP770 got very, very hot and power consumption was extremely high. Someone on this forum [@Jako] rescued me with a post suggesting a different combination of display drivers. This improved the situation greatly ...until the Anniverary update kicked in. Since then my computer once again gets very hot. The current version of drivers installed are: AMD HD8800M 15.200.1065.0 and Intel HD4000 10.18.10.4358
I think we have moved on from there.
Could someone please tell me which are the best versions to have right now, and more importantly, which is the best way of getting them? - There is talk about 'clean installs' [please excuse my ignorance/inexperience], but how exactly should one go about it/or not...? Any help is much appreciated.

Also, is it normal that the laptop uses more power on battery than plugged in? [I checked all the settings I could find and plugged in is optimised for performance and battery is optimised for power saving.] Would have thought it to be the other way round....

 

The increase in consumption when running on batery against ac plugged was the problem we had a year ago when we installed windows 10 originally.

now I'm seeing 14w consumption when on battery, versus 9w when running on ac

My setup currently
Windows 10 Pro
1607
14393.351
AMD 21.19.137.1 (this changed, it's a driver from septembre 2016)
Intel 10.18.10.4358

Will try to go back to original AMD driver and see what I can achieve

 

Hello guys,

Apologies if I'm resurrecting a dead thread but after many years of productive use, it seems the fans on my 780Z Chronos are beginning to die.

I've removed the back panel and gave the entire laptop a thorough clean with compressed air, but unfortunately that has not stopped my fans from sounding like absolute jet engines every time I switch the laptop on.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of replacing the fans on this? How difficult would it be for someone who isn't the most familiar with repairing laptops?

And where I can get them from when I'm based in the UK - I found one website but it was US only and $100 which seems a little steep?

Look forward to your help!

 

Here you are. The NP770/780/870/880 are basically the same computer so I'm 99% confident that the fans are interchangeable (no sensible manufacture unneccessarily complicates their logistics). This NP680 cooling system is probably also the same.

You will need some thermal paste. Opinions vary about what is the best but I've been using NT-H1 for the past year without problems. It's possible that your notebook may also use a thermal pad but you can usually transfer this across.

The replacement procedure should only take a few minutes. Disconnect the mains power, remove the computer base; disconnect the battery (it might have a pin-hole switch on the bottom); unscrew all screws fixing the heat sinks and fans and disconnect the fan cables. Then pull off the fan / heatsink unit. Clean up the CPU and dGPU chips on the computer and also make sure the surfaces of the heatsink are clean then put a small dollop (approx two grains of rice) of thermal paste on the middle of each of CPU and dGPU (unless the dGPU has a thermal pad) then put on the fan / heat sink unit and screw down. (I move the fan/heatsink unit around slightly to help spread the paste before fixing.) If you are unsure how well the paste has been applied then take everything apart, inspect, clean and re-apply. The purpose of the paste is to fill the gaps between the metal surfaces, otherwise the thinner the layer the better as metal is a better conductor than paste.

However, others may be able to offer better specific advice for the notebook family.

John

 

Mine are now also getting really loud(but I dont think that mine are broken) and starting to throttle when watching 1080p video on my external monitor. All 4 Cores are around 97-99°C. I guess I'll have to reapply the thermal heat paste on my CPU and dGPU and do al little cleaning.

 

Hello John,

Thank you for the very useful and informative reply.

I am prepared to fix the fans myself, but it would be great if someone else who has some firsthand experience of repairing/replacing these specific fans can confirm whether the links you kindly sent are 100% correct?

I'd hate to get my hopes up and waste money on buying incorrect parts.

Many thanks guys!

 

Hey guys. I'm having a lot of problems with my laptop. Specifically with the graphics card drivers.

I have the radeon 8870m but I haven't been able to get it working for months. It started crashing the computer and giving me (THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER) messages. I tried for ages to get it working by way of different drivers and clean installing windows and the like, but had no luck. Eventually I just decided to disable it in device manager and get on with things. About a month and a half ago I started getting problems with windows 10 failing to update every time it shut down, and having to wait ages for it to undo the updates on startup, but it wasn't a big deal so I just let it be. Finally, about a month ago the laptop started freezing. Just happened once then after that it wouldnt stay on for more than 10-15 minutes before completely crashing and me having to force a shut down and boot it up again. I tried for ages to fix this, even reinstalled windows, and eventually in the middle of me rolling back to windows 8 it froze again and when I booted it up I was left with a blue screen, no options, nothing. Couldn't access bios, couldn't do anything. So i got a professional involved and paid for a repair where the guy reformatted the hard drive and installed windows 7, which he said was the most stable for this laptop (is it? It came with windows 8). However since getting it back the only thing in the display driver category is "Standard VGA adapter" (there is also a unknown video controller in a different section but with no drivers) and I can't run any games or anything needing a graphics card at all, it just gives me a text box saying windows couldn't find any graphics cards. I tried installing the Intel drivers myself, but this just lead to black screens and messed up resolutions so I ended up giving it back to the guy to sort out. He claims that there is not much he can do, and it seems like I am going to get it back in the same state again.

I am really at a loss as to what to do now. It was an expensive laptop and I can hardly afford to get a replacement but it's useless to me without a graphics card. It seems ridiculous that there are integrated and dedicated graphics and neither can be fixed.

Does anyone have any amazing advice? Is there a specific driver that is reliable? Is my laptop just busted? I feel like the problem persisting through multiple windows installations is damning.

Sorry for the wall of text. Want to make sure the problem is clear.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

You need picures of the motherboard? I've got 2 in my house, can take some photos of the fan.

 

Hello,

If they maybe have a part number? That would be hugely helpful!

 

There it goes

 

And the last one

 

I've got another notebook, this one os complete so you can see the motherboard mounted. Tell me if you need it

 

Ok, I cannot afford to replace the motherboard and the constant freezing caused by the AMD GPU is driving me crazy. It's getting worse since Windows is now shoving the updates down my throat and I have to sit for at least 15 minutes each time I startup my PC again to configure the GPU to disable etc. I am desperate and I've come across many articles of baking the GPU. Has anyone tried this, and considering the layout of this laptop's motherboard is it safe?

 

No, I would say it's very dangerous to bake this motherboard, and it would be unlikely to fix the issue anyways. Your problem sounds like software, not hardware. Have you tried installing Crimson 16.7.2? It's the last working driver that works on a clean install. All versions later than this must be applied as upgrade, without uninstalling previous versions.

Edit: Meant 16.7.2. 16.8.2 crashes and later cause system hangs on installation.

 

Thanks for the warning, will stay away. But nothing has worked, 16.6.1, 16.7.2, 16.8.2 and even 16.9 . All result in crashes and black screens and failed startups. I will as a last resort try a clean install for 16.8.2 this weekend

 

It's a hardware issue, I've got the same problem with a motherboard from one of my no770.

If you want to be sure use a linux live cd and see how it goes..

 

This "Crimson" software, will it work on Windows 8? Or does it need to be 8.1?

I'm not going to upgrade to 8.1 due to the brightness issues, but I do need to upgrade my AMD graphics card as the recommended link on the first page of this thread not longer works

 

These drivers only support Win 7, Win 8.1 and Win 10.

They do not support Windows 8. You will get an error saying that it cannot continue due to an unsupported Operating System.
Does anyone know where I can find the link to the last working driver for windows 8? Or should I take my chances with windows 10?

 

Radeon 14.4 WHQL
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/amd-catalyst-14-4-whql-(14-100-april-17)-download.html

Currently downloading so the link works..

 

Does anyone else have issues with the Wifi and/or Bluetooth on this laptop? My wifi sometimes has trouble getting connected, especially after I restart the computer and I have noticed that if I use Bluetooth it will often interfere with and disrupt my wifi connection causing it to drop out.

I'm just curious as to what drivers people are using? I am running the latest version of Windows 10 and I guess I'm using the drivers provided by Samsung Update.

 

Thank you very much. I downloaded and installed it, though it did come with some errors:

<errmsg>Error messages</errmsg>
<name>Name</name>
<manufacture>Manufacturer</manufacture>
<chiptype>Chip type</chiptype>
<chipid>Device ID</chipid>
<otherhw>Other hardware</otherhw>
<download>Download packages</download>
<succeed>Success</succeed>
<fail>Fail</fail>
<vendorid>Vendor ID</vendorid>
<classcode>Class Code</classcode>
<revisionid>Revision ID</revisionid>
<ssid>Subsystem ID</ssid>
<ssvid>Subsystem vendor ID</ssvid>
<header1>Catalyst™ Install Manager</header1>
<header2>Installation Report</header2>
<finalstatus>Final Status:</finalstatus>
<versionofitem>Version of Item:</versionofitem>
<size>Size:</size>
<bytes>Mbytes</bytes>
</resource>
<error><msg>Driver Install: the specified driver package was not installed for matching devices</msg></error></monetreport>


I may have to buy a new laptop as it's to slow playing animations. At first I wasn't to sure if the AMD graphics card was being used, but it was already set to High Performance on Maya. I then decided to disable the integrated graphics card as Maya was pointing to that card for GPU Cache. Even though I disabled it, Maya still points to it for some reason (there is no option to choose) and there was no difference in playback speed.

I did notice that disabling the integrated graphics card removed the brightness control option.

I currently have 8GB in the machine. Will it make much difference upgrading to 12GB?

 

Sorry, another question:

After updating the driver, my fans are constantly spinning. Has anybody else had this problem?

 

Hello,

So I've finally gotten a reply from a Samsung repair centre in the UK.

She has quoted me the following:


"CPU fan BA31-00135A £12.10 inc vat

Heat sink fan BA62-00804A £28.77

Carriage £7.50".

As far as I can tell, it's just the fans that are the problem due to the noise they are making. Can anyone shed some light on what she means by carriage? Will I need to purchase one of those too?

 

"Carriage" is the postage.

Did you contact Digicare or Valutech? If not ask them (you now have the part numbers). They might offer a better price if they have some stock they want to reduce.

John

 

Ah, that makes sense! My head clearly isn't functioning as well as it should be.

That is the quote from Digitech, I've reached out to Valutech to see whether they have any and if it's cheaper.

So once I do finally get these replacement fans, I'll only need to buy the thermal paste as well then i should be all set to fix them?