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

Followed the tutorial and everything went perfectly!!! I now have catalyst 13.5 with full brightness control and sleep mode working properly.

ANYWAY, I noticed a difference in the display mode (the one customisable through the settings panel accessible with Fn+F1): the setting I used to keep, Sharp, now displays colour with an exaggerated contrast, and they're now unnatural. I had to fall back to the "movie" mode, which is better, but I'm afraid it's not like the old sharp anymore, which was awesome in reproducing colours. Has anyone noticed the same thing? Is there a way to manual adjust the colours saturation, contrast and so on?


EDIT: I forgot to thank all the people who contributed to this you're awesome!

 

I've been using "sharp" since I own this laptop and I haven't seen a difference in colours when installing the drivers.

I misread your signature and thought you had an overclocked HDD

 

ahahahahah xD yeah that's the desktop I have back in my home country, the parts are already a bit old but it's a nice machine. Now I'm sticking on the laptop for a while so it's ok

anyway, I tried again the sharp setting after staying on the movie setting for a bit, and I can confirm that the contrast is way too high, the colours are not natural at all. Movie settings looks fine though.

Brightness finally stays at the level I set it to, including the keyboard backlight (previously, it switched itself on and off randomly)


anyway, is there any way I can test the colours and set them at the perfect ratio, or similar? I'm getting paranoid with thinking that now they don't look natural anymore the other settings have weak colours and I won't use them for any reason xD


edit: I found a way to tweak the colours settings under the intel graphic properties - can anyone post a screenshot of their own values for a comparison?

 

Do any current owners of this laptop use Skype? Have any problems with dropping calls every so often or such? I'm almost 99% certain that this is a network/firewall/Skype-Windows-8-Compatability issue, but I figured I'd check if anyone's encountered the same problem, and if it somehow might be a hardware issue related to webcam or such. I'm going to need this for business Skyping, so I'm a bit concerned!

EDIT: "Brightness finally stays at the level I set it to, including the keyboard backlight (previously, it switched itself on and off randomly)"

Also, that's the second user who's somehow fixed the backlight problem (I believe)! I haven't seen anything from SW Update yet--do you know what you've done to fix it?

 

Yep I did. Following the fisrt line of your instructions

 

It was fixed after the catalysy 15.3 beta installation!

I also have adaptive brghtness set on OFF under the power options (battery icon in the taskbar)

 

I was the other one who reported the keyboard backlight to be working correctly, but I haven't installed the beta drivers. Today (after a reboot) it still seems to be working correctly. Don't know what could have fixed it...

 

I'm pretty sure that the graphics driver wouldn't fix the backlight--perhaps something else sneaked in? A windows update? I must admit to being quite jealous, however it's been fixed!

EDIT: I have installed the newest graphics driver and it's still being its usual all-over-the-place self.

 

Aha, there is is. However, playing about with it, it appears to set the Button_Right setting, rather than the ClickPad_RightCorner one, so it still needs fiddling manually in the registry.

 

Actually, you can reveal even more settings in ETDAniConf by changing values in the HKCU\Software\Elantech\SmartPadDisplay from 0 to 1. They don't always stick, so these settings may be invisible next time you open ETDAniConf (although the settings changes themselves DO stick). But you can Export a .REG file with all of them set to 1 and Import that one before you open ETDAniConf, in order to display all available settings.

Did that make sense?

Edit: This is an old tip which I saw when I first came here last summer. I wish I remembered who gave it. Credit goes to the discoverer -- it wasn't me.

 

Does anybody else have throttling problems? Notebookcheck claims that when running furmark, the gpu always hits 725mhz and up to 775mhz but when i run it, my core clock only goes to 575mhz and max 725mhz! I noticed that game gpu usage is very sporadic! I have the canadian model, the NP780Z5E-S02CA. Any help to alleviate any throttling and at least get to where notebookcheck achieved is very appreciated.

And another thing, I want to play certain games at a lower resolution to make it faster but when i do that, black borders come around the screen. I know this has something to do with how amd gpus have overscanning and underscanning but there are no settings for that catalyst control center! Does anyone else have this problem when running a game on a lower resolution than native?

 

Just upgraded to 13.5 beta 3 on the 8770M and all I can say is WOW. I've noticed performance improvements in all my games, but most importantly the terrible stutter I've been getting when pushing games to higher settings is GONE. GTA IV is running smooth at 1080p high settings, with medium shadows (in comparison to running "acceptably" at all medium 1080p). I finally feel like I have what my $1200 was supposed to get me. Thanks kia0001 for the step-by-step branching procedure!

Well for one set the GPU in Windows power settings to Maximize Performance for both Switchable Graphics Global Settings and ATI PowerPlay Settings. Past there I can't say...

To the second question, yes me too, only in certain games like AC III. Solution: run games at native. I know, lame, but games look so much better in native that's its worth dropping a few settings

 

Thanks for the reply! Yah I figured I had to put it on high performance on windows power settings and far cry 3 worked flawlessly Also, do you( or anyone else) have a problem with windows 8 where you get redirect loops when searching in Google? This doesn't happen on my windows 7 machine. I noticed windows 8 has a ton of browser problems.

 

There used to be an issue with Samsung's Easy Support Center messing up browser behaviour in Windows 8. If that software is installed then show it the exit.

John

 

How are your temps going guys? I've just finished playing Assassin's Creed (played for about an hour) at full details (FHD and all details maxed) and surprisingly my GPU stayed below 60°, while the CPU stayed below 65°. I'm pretty satisfied with these temps

 

I had the exact same issues. For some games you can fix it by downloading msi afterburner and putting the power limit to +20%. What fixes it in almost all games is downloading 13.5 beta 3 . I use both.

I really can't stress enough how much 13.5 beta 3 improves overall gaming experience.

I'm getting around 67° for both gpu and cpu when heavy gaming and with a 900/1300 overclock and 120W PSU I hit 78°. Pretty impressive for such a thin laptop I'd say.

 

I'm playing Assassin's creed now and updating the drivers didn't give me a noticeable improvement... The game still runs smoothly except when I'm looking at a vast area from the rooftops. Could it be because the game is a bit old and it's not optimised for win 8? Maybe newer games will benefit more?

 

yes, the newer and more demanding the game, the more improvement I see.


I almost hit 3900 in 3Dmark 11 . This must be some kind of a record, right? At least a national record since this laptop is not even for sale in my country .

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3635QM,SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. NP770Z5E-S01FR score: P3897 3DMarks

 

Would it be possible to change the GPU? Being in the U.S. I'm stuck with the 17" with the 8870 and the 15" with only the 8770. If it's possible I'm considering buying BOTH laptops, switching GPU's and selling the 17" with the weaker 8770.

 

Sadly, no. The GPU's are soldered onto the motherboard and can't be interchanged. Wouldn't a trip to canada or a forwarding service be possible?

 

does any one know, Can I HDMI output to a 2560X1440 display device with just fit 2560X1440 pixel?

 

Anyone with a 8770 1gb test 3dmark11 ? I'm getting a score around 2k. Wondering if that's normal. If so Pranktank your score is double what I get! The 8870 gpu is very powerful!

 

Ha, I wish! My CPU and GPU are at 70-75C under load, while with lighter (but still more intensive than office) work, such as playing a movie or streaming something, it runs more like 50-55C. Pranktank, do you have the -s02CA?

 

Hello There


Been following this thread for quite sometime now. I'm really starting to like the chronos 7 as it fulfils all my requirements..But I've a few questions about it

1. I know its battery life is good but how well does it stand out while watching movies or playing games?

2. AMD launched the beta drivers which is great but I've heard AMD are really slow when it comes to launch gpu drivers as compared to Nvidia..Can anyone confirm like whats there usual release cycle, after how much time they update the drivers? and is there any news when will the tested/proper drivers come from AMD for the 8870m?

3. Lastly I need to buy a laptop in july/August period and I know Haswell will be lauched by that time is there any possibility that Samsung will refresh the Ativ Book 8 or the chronos by that time? and also what was the laptop update cycle for the Ivy Bridge last year, did laptops start coming in quite quickly after the release of the processor?

 

Usually a couple of betas a month from AMD these days

 

Pranktank, would you please post benchmark results with 120w psu over the 90w stock one? Is there any real improvement?

 

Keep in mind that that was an overclocked test. Normally I get 3400-3450.

That's not bad. Is the back lifted a bit under heavy load? I have the 770Z5E-S01FR

I only have time for a few 3Dmark runs now.

90W + Stock drivers: 3295 Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3635QM,SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. NP770Z5E-S01FR score: P3259 3DMarks

90W + 13.5: 3416 Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3635QM,SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. NP770Z5E-S01FR score: P3416 3DMarks

120W + 13.5: 3447 http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6549824

90W + 13.5 + overclock (850/1250) : 3353 Intel HD Graphics 4000 Mobile video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3635QM,SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. NP770Z5E-S01FR score: P3353 3DMarks a lot of throttling here

90W +13.5 + heavy overclock (900/1300): Crash

120W +13.5 + heavy overclock (920/1350): 3897 Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3635QM,SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. NP770Z5E-S01FR score: P3897 3DMarks

So it just provides stability and prevents throttling a bit .

 

May I ask what model and brand of 120W PSU you have bought?

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I got that in Far Cry 3 - I think it might be an issue with DirectX 11 games, specifically. In any case, it keeps the screen at the desktop resolution, not native screen resolution, so if you reduce your desktop to 1366*768 or whatever before starting the game, it'll appear correctly.

Too much hassle for me, though, I just turned the res back and sighingly turned the detail sliders down. Although it sounds like I might be tempted to try these new drivers everyone is talking about.

 

About new drivers 13.5 beta. Did anyone try to update only the inf without installing all ccc and other stuff? Maybe in this way there wouldn't be all the issues about brightness snd sleep...

 

In order to reach 3897, beside freq overclock, did you change power of gpu in afterburner?

 

Here is what I did after failing to adjust the brightness:
I again uninstalled HD 4000, but this time checking the box to delete the software. Windows 8 installed wddm 1.2 for graphics driver after the reboot. Then I extracted the graphics driver from SW update and installed it. And now the brightness is adjustable!

 

RE: (1) My somewhat sideways answer is I own the older NP700Z5C and get 5-6 hours out of normal web-type stuff, and can usually get 4+ hours while watching movies. My sense is the larger capacity battery in the newer model will do better than that.

And RE: (2), you might want to check out this thread, which includes completely wild speculation about the Haswell refresh (I'm one of the guilty parties). Nobody knows, but we're definitely willing to guess!

-Matt

 

Of course, it's the ICIDU iniversal 120W notebok adapter. I reall like it since it comes with a usb-port for charging phones and other things while charging your notebook. It's not huge and the cheapest where I live.
Notebook Adapter - Power

There aren't any sleep or brightness issues if you keep the intel drivers . Check post 1 for instructions.

Yes I did a +20% power limit. It just gives more stability and keeps your clocks at turbo. It's useful even without overclocking.

That's the way I do it too.Because you actually need to remove the software.

 

Hi guys, I have trouble installing windows 7 on the new samsung series 7. I have booted up from an external dvd drive with the windows 7 cd in it and have deleted all the partitions that windows 8 had on this computer (there were a lot). But when I tried to make a new partition, an error comes up saying that "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the BIOS menu." Can anyone help me or tell their experiences of installing windows 7 on this laptop?

 

Most likely is relative to kind of partition, when Windows x64 (7 or 8) installer detect an UEFI system then it wants a GPT disk so it refuses a MBR disk.

Windows and GPT FAQ

So you have to format by Windows installer the HDD, if HDD is already erased you can do easily.

 

I returned mine. The grainy/sparkly screen was too much. Now I need to find another laptop with a screen that has similarly good color. Too bad the HP Envy 15 IPS was discontinued.

 

Bought a NP780Z5E couple days ago in Canada...Thought I'd provide some quick points...
Pros:
-Amazing screen, there is some grain but very minimal. On an angle I can see the touch sensitive layer of the screen, but no biggie. Very sharp and very bright. Colors and contrast are quite good as well. Responsive touch.
-Sleek, looks great, great form-factor and design
-Quiet
-Great specs minus the hdd

Cons:
-Slow hard drive 5400rpm in a $1499+ (cdn) laptop is pretty ridiculous. Wouldn't be so bad if it weren't also such a pain in the to take apart the laptop to put a SSD in.
-Bi-lingual keyboard is terrible, the back-light on the keys are very uneven and looks cheap. My backspace key's silver paint was peeling on the corner out of the box, makes me wonder how durable the painted keys will be
-Looks expensive, but most of the laptop feels real cheap and plasticky
-The Windows 8 install is terrible, lots and lots of bloatware, no easy way to do a clean install if one does not have Windows 8 media
-Speakers crackle depending on source
-Headphone/Microphone built into a single 3.5mm
-Wireless signal is so-so
-Only laptop, power adapter, cloth and manuals in the box. Nothing else...Would be nice to provide a headphone+microphone to 3.5mm adapter if they are going to put them into a combo jack.

Neutral:
-Was running 8870m with 13.5 beta drivers. I was dissappointed with the performance in Starcraft 2: HOTS. It should get better in the future I'd imagine.

Overall, I am disappointed with the laptop. There was none on demo for me to try before buying it, so I took the leap of faith and just bought it. Will be sending it back...

 

I think you're the only one who thinks that this laptop looks, or feel, cheap and plasticky lol
As soon as I opened the box, I was amazed from the build quality and the look of the machine. I was worried about the bottom cover which is made of plastic but I liked that too. Nothing looks cheap! Not even the backlight as you are saying!

The bottom cover could be a pain to open, but you're going to open it once to install the SSD and then not so often in case you wish to clean the fans.

The hard drive is slow, yeah, everyone would have liked a pre-installed SSD.. or maybe not? I bought one of the best SSDs to install, and it was my choice, I really doubt they would have put an 840 pro inside if it came with a preinstalled SSD. Also, once you removed the drive you can easily use it as an external drive for media, which allows you to take advantage of it.

Win 8 install is terrible lol? Is it that hard to remove the tools you don't need? The machine will be fast enough by only removing the bloatware you don't want, there's no need to do a clean install unless you are a fanatic..

Can't disagree about the speakers, sometimes I heard a small crackling sound which is a bit annoying, but fortunately it's almost unnoticeable.

Am I the only one who didn't say a word about the box content? I don't need anything else apart from what they included. You can use the built-in microphone which works really well.

Wireless signal is fine for me, did you make sure you installed the latest drivers for your card? (And also, this issue has been largely discussed on every thread about the series 7, so you should have been aware of it even before purchasing)

Probably you'd be happy with a macbook lol xD

 

Omg, it's big! I've seen around smaller 120w universal psu...

 

Yes it's very big compared to the very slim 90W adapter but it's the cheapest I could find.

 

Is it possible for someone to post a video review on youtube showing the gaming performance and the exterior and the weight..I'm yet to find a good review on youtube..Also the issues it has and how to fix them

 

1. Is it possible to make that image on an external HDD instead of a USB stick?
2. Would this require a 32 GB (or less, i.e. 20GB) partition or is it a single file I can easily move between different hard drives as a backup?

Thanks to anyone who will answer to this, I asked it quite some times but never found a solution (if possible, I'd avoid purchasing also a 32GB USB 3.0 stick)

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

if this laptop feels cheap to you, macbook pro is probably the only laptop left that you just MIGHT find satisfying build quality wise....

 

Sorry if this question has been repeated. But how do I get the function keys working again after a fresh install windows on a SSD? Any idea where I can get the software download?

 

Yup I fixed it, turns out the many partitions that were preloaded onto the HDD were not supposed to deleted so i restarted the installation process and the partitions were thankfully still there, and the install went well. I lost brightness control though in windows 7 after installing catalyst 13.5 beta 3.

 

Good job getting it working again

All those partitions look awfully cluttered, but with Win8 and UEFI/GPT we'll have to get used to it: It's how Microsoft recommends it now for new PCs; these partitions all serve a purpose; they don't really take up that much space; and there are no limitations on the number of partitions (as on MBR disks with max 4 primaries).

I briefly summed up those partitions in this response to member alfling some time ago.

In addition to the excellent article linked for you by member -Mac- I recommend the following Microsoft TechNet article:

Understanding Disk Partitions

The one thing I will recommend everybody is to leave your Recovery Partitions alone (SAMSUNG_REC and SAMSUNG_REC2) -- even if you're used to deleting recovery partitions from new PCs in the past. They don't take up much space on a 1TB harddrive, and they can be difficult to re-create once they're gone -- say if you want to sell the machine some day, or if you need to contact Samsung for support or service.

 

Download Samsung's SW Update from the link below, then use it to install Settings. I would also let SW Update install basic drivers for your PC. The post linked here describes what I let SW Update install -- and, more importantly, what I avoid.

http://orcaservice.samsungmobile.com/SWUpdate.aspx

 

Sorry, alfling. I DID see your question last time, just never got around to answering it. These Recovery discussion always get very time consuming, so I tend to procrastinate

To the best of my knowledge, you HAVE to make that backup to a USB stick (as opposed to an external HDD); and 16GB is NOT enough, though I do not know the exact size for your model.

You CAN indeed back up and restore your factory image to/from an external HDD as long as you can boot a working Recovery (ie an intact Recovery Partition AND a working F4 link). But if you want a self-contained, bootable backup of your Factory Image, I believe it MUST go on a memory stick, not on on an external HDD partition.

I base this on my own experience with Samsung Recovery Solution 5 (SRS5) and the numerous posts and discussions on the forum about SRS6 (many of them outside the two main 2013 Chronos threads). After your last post, I was actually hoping other members with an SRS6 model would answer -- which gave me another excuse to procrastinate

Note that once have a bootable recovery & factory image backup on a 32GB USB stick (and are done using it to clone onto your SSD) you could save an image backup of that stick to an external HDD in order to free up the stick for other uses.

That said, there IS one alternative: It's what we used to do when I was a young man (ie until SRS6 came out last fall ) because it was the only option we had in SRS5: Create a so-called USB Admin Tool and save the file and folder contents of the recovery partitions manually. It's described in the post linked here. It only requires a 512MB USB stick (maybe 1GB for SRS6); everything else can be copied to an external HDD.

Because SRS6 now has such a great backup feature, I don't really recommend this procedure anymore. Also because I have not received confirmation from anyone who actually used it to re-create their SRS6 Recovery this way -- though we DO have confirmation that creating and using the USB Admin Tool itself works with SRS6. And I am quite confident it should work.

If you (or anybody) choose this route, then here are the basics:

1) Read and understand the basics of the procedure in the post linked here (the same as linked above).

2) F4 Boot Recovery and create a bootable USB Admin Tool on a small USB stick (as described in that linked post).

3) Still in Recovery, backup Factory Image to external HDD (not bootable).

4) Copy the entire file and folder contents the of SAMSUNG_REC and SAMSUNG_REC2 partitions to an external HDD (using one of the ways described in the post linked in Step 1. SRS5 didn't have a SAMSUNG_REC2, but you do). Also, note down the size of your SAMSUNG_REC2 partition.

5) Install SSD. When using the HDD for storage try and avoid deleting the recovery partitions, just in case.

6) Boot the USB Admin Tool. If your PC has a USB2 port (black) I recommend using that.

7a) Use Admin Tool to re-partition your drive (now the SSD) and re-install the Recovery on it. Instead of the steps described in the post linked above (which was for SRS5) use the steps and options described in this post. Use the size you noted down of your SAMSUNG_REC partition when you enter Size of Recovery Data Partition.

I cannot guarantee you that SRS6 properly deals with alignment on the SSD, but I assume it DOES, since this is Samsung's own tool for this purpose.

7b) As part of step (7) you can try and connect your external HDD (where you saved your Factory Image backup) and check the Copy init image option in Admin Tool. SRS5 can ONLY read Initial Image from a USB stick, but with some luck, SRS6 may be able to read it from your external HDD.

7c) Alternatively, you will have to manually copy file and folder contents back to the newly created SAMSUNG_REC2 partition (after closing Admin Tool, using one of the ways described in the post linked in step 1). This will restore all your original Recovery Data.

Even if Admin Tool already copied your Initial Image (Factory Image) you may still want to restore the SystemSoftware folder. It allows SW Update to quickly install all drivers and utilities for your model after a clean install, even without an internet connection.

Note that you shouldn't have to restore file and folder contents to SAMSUNG_REC (The Recovery Software Partition). Admin Tool already installed Recovery software on the newly created SAMSUNG_REC partition.

8) F4 boot your newly created and freshly restored Recovery -- now from the SSD. You should now be able to Restore Factory Image and get your original Windows 8 installation going.

9) Once everything is working, you can delete the Recovery Partitions (SAMSUNG_REC and SAMSUNG_REC2) to save space on the SSD. If you leave SAMSUNG_REC, you should still be able to F4 boot Recovery. It's the last partition on the disk and is only 1GB.

As you can see, this is quite an involved procedure compared to simply backing up to a 32GB USB stick and booting it directly to restore factory image onto the SSD. Admittedly, having the USB Admin Tool and the backups described above allows you to do some other fancy things. But you'll probably never need them anyway.

In other words, take it from an old dude: You guys don't even know how easy you got it now with SRS6

That said, if any of you would test this procedure and post confirmation or corrections here, that will be very valuable to our community. I can assure you, it will be the first thing I do, when the time comes for me to get a new Samsung laptop with SRS6! There are literally hundreds of posts and discussions about Recovery in the Samsung forum -- many of them from people who inadvertently lost Recoveries and are looking for help. Hands-on experience with these things is highly valuable knowledge here

 

Hi guys. I'm having week signal bar on my wifi. Anyone is experiencing this as well?

Also sometime my wifi will gets disconnected after a while. It's kind of annoying though.

Is there any workaround for this?