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

Hi,

does anyone know if there's a repository with the NP770Z5E-S02 drivers and softwares available other than the Samsung website ? I've reinstalled my OS and can't find at least a SW Update anywhere on the web, I'm stuck with random drivers and low brightness...
Meanwhile at Samsung's...


Thanks /

 

Hi fanfouay, welcome to NBR.

Samsung hasn't published driver updates on its web site for some time now, it's all through SW Update, which you can download using the link below:

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

As for being unable to increase your brightness, it's a side effect of the Adaptive Brightness feature. Once you disable that, you should be able to increase brightness. Unfortunately, they're making it tricky to disable that Adaptive Brightness. See this post for details.

 

hello have someone tried to instal an intel 6300 wireless card on this notebook?

 

Thanks a lot! I'm struggling a bit with the adaptive brightness, glad to see I'm not alone!


Edit : Well, it's not really better. I had already changed the power management option, I installed Settings 2.0.0.55 and unchecked the adaptive brightness, I unchecked also in Windows options. everything is unchecked on the Intel Properties window, I don't have access to the UEFI (standard BIOS only).... I guess I'm screwed! :/

 

Hi guys,

I'm having issues with my trackpad randomly jumping around and every time I tap to open it will jump away from the area. This only started happening recently and usually after it wakes up from sleep. After I tap my screen (I have the 15 inch series 7 8870 with a touch screen) it seems to fix itself and go back to normal till it sleeps again. If i don't tap my screen it seems to last indefinitely. It also happens after I open up the traktor DJ software. I recently installed traktor and it seems to have started after that. I cannot be sure. Could a program like that even when not running affect the trackpad?

Thanks for any help!

 

Does anybody know the availability of the 8870m version in canada?

 

If you re-installed Settings, you have to check your power profiles again. Make sure you check both Samsung Optimized (default) and Power Saver (Silent & Eco Mode). Unless you re-intalled Win8 in non-UEFI mode, you definitely should have UEFI firmware settings. It should be in the post I linked.

 

Actually I don't have UEFI mode either. I just checked with the steps you posted but it brings me to the standard bios. Anyone know why or what could be wrong?

 

Hello everyone,


I have the NP780Z5E, and I am really facing problems with it. It is sometimes a bit slow.

I've read that changing the hard drive would make it faster.

I have two questions regarding this:

1- What kind of an sdd drive is compatible with this laptop .. for example does this one work:

Amazon.com: Samsung MZ-7TD250BW 840 Series Solid State Drive (SSD) 250 GB Sata 2.5-Inch: Computers & Accessories

2- Do I need to buy Windows 8 to install it to my device?



Thanks

 

Any 2.5" SATA SSD under 8mm thick should work. The Samsung 840 and 840 Pro lines are probably the most popular (an 840 pro is actually being delivered to me on Monday.) The main difference between the 840 and 840 pro is the that the write speed on the Pro is around double what it is on the non-Pro, but the read speeds are basically the same. I'm far from an expert, but the 840 also uses some kind of chips that tend to die out faster than the ones used in the Pro. This article actually shows that the regular 840 has a very long life and that that shouldn't keep you from getting one.

If you decide to get an 840 non-Pro you might want to wait until the Samsung Evo line comes out which are basically cheaper non-Pros with better write speeds and higher capacities.

I'm very new to this stuff myself so I might be wrong on a couple things here.

No, your serial key is stored in the BIOS, not the OS so you can just follow the guide in the OP to install it.

 

Can anyone tell me why there is no Fn key to dim display for the N880Z5E? I asked the Samsung rep but she told me this model does not come with the option to dim display. I was very awed. How can a laptop this expensive lack such basic functionality? Does that mean I am left with the option to constantly leave the screen on, even when idle? Setting dim display to x minutes in the power options doesn't help either. The screen is always on. In fact, the power option does not do anything at all!

 

So how would I do a recovery?

 

Press F4 immediately after power on, then use the Factory Restore feature. If you cannot seem to catch it before Windows loads, then temporarily disable Fast Startup in Windows power options, that ensures a full shutdown (instead of the usual quick resume).

 

But wait won't Windows not be on the SSD when I switch the drives? It'll be on the HDD that I took out of it.

 

You need to get yourself a 32gb USB drive, create a bootable factory image (from the F4 Recovery tools or Samsung's 'Recovery' in Windows). Then swap out the drives, reboot, and rebuild. Full instructions are in the first post of this thread - you need to read them, there are step by step instructions, including the boot settings you need to change. It's a really easy process provided you take your time and follow the instructions to the letter.

 

The context here was damouk's previous advice to another member to simply clean out junk to optimize the factory installation (after restoring to factory using Recovery) vs performing a clean install of Windows. I was merely describing HOW to perform that restore in Recovery.

If you follow the steps he mentioned in his latest response, you will have Recovery (F4) available on the newly installed SSD. Some people delete Recovery from their SSD to reclaim the space (understandably) but if you have enough space, of course keeping the Recovery on there is convenient.

 

Lol, you got a good rep. This laptop does have a dim/brighten key for the backlight and display. The display is FN + f2/f3 but you will have to go into quick settings and disable automatic brightness for the brightness to stick.

 

Could you analyze this alternative way and tell me if it could be ok?
1-Resize the main partition (with OS) of the hdd to a dimension under 100gb
2-create a new partition with the previous non-allocated space and clone the 100gb partition with clonezilla o similar software that allow to clone entire partitions.
3-Switch the hdd with ssd and using clonezilla restore the partition with OS on the sdd.

Switching hdd with ssd can be done whenever you want, even at the beginning.

The advantages I see in this case are that you don't need to edit bios update, to install all software and drivers again, to use a 32gb pen drive (for clonezilla 1gb is big enough)

 

I think Jimmy meant a key to completely turn off the LCD (but within sleeping the PC) not just turning display brightness up/down (as Fn - F2/F3 do). I apologize if I misunderstood that.

To be honest, I too miss that feature from my old Lenovo laptop back in the days. Neither of my two current laptops have it (an older HP HDX18 top-of-the line model and my Samsung NP700Z3A). The only way I know to do this, is to set lid-closing action to Do Nothing in Windows Power options, then close the lid to turn off the LCD.

 

Just saw this deal on the Crucial M500 960GB SSD for $559 (free shipping, no sales taxt outside CA) and thought some might be interested.

It has been mentioned previously that the M500 is too tall for our Sammies, but according to the spec page on Newegg it is 7mm. And according to Crucial's web page, it is guaranteed compatible with NP680Z5E (ATIV Book 6) and NP700xxx (2012 Series 7). They don't have ATIV Book 8 nor the 2013 Series 7 listed on their site.

Note that I have NO personal experience with this SSD, nor with that store (NCIX), and this is NOT a recommendation on my part. I only now it has great specs and warranty and thought it was a good price for a huge and fast SSD.

 

Are you saying that the time-outs for display dimming and turning off are not working on the NP880Z5E? If so, perhaps the philosophy is that the Windows 8 sleep replaces the need for this. Set your power button action to put the computer to sleep so a quick poke of the power button will not just turn off the display but also reduce power consumption by the rest of the system.

John

 

Oh no, that's not what I meant. I am sure those display timeouts work correctly. But the way I read Jimmy's post, he wanted a key to immediately turn off the display without putting the computer to sleep. And I miss that too sometimes. (Again, Jimmy, I apologize if you meant something else).

An example of when I miss this, is during meetings where I want to keep my PC running because my charting platform is doing real-time updates -- if I put it to sleep, it's going to disconnect and possibly require renewed platform login. Yet I also want to save power to keep the battery going as long as possible.

I used to have my Power button set to Sleep (as you suggest) and Lid-close to Do Nothing (so that it would turn off the LCD without sleeping). But since Win8, I like to have my Power button set to Shutdown (with Win8 Fast Startup) and Lid-close set to Sleep -- so now I miss that Display-off key again. It's not a huge issue, I just switch to Silent Mode in those situations, which I've set for a short display timeout -- plus it saves battery in itself.

Still, I understand the need for that dedicated key.

 

Actually, with this method, I think you would still have to change the 2 bios settings, exactly the same. The reason for the bios edit is so that you can boot from an external device, as soon as you've reconfigured your new drive, you set them back - it's only temporary!

While your method may sort of work, a lot of people who've tried clonezilla/acronis/similar tools have reported issues with Windows 8 not booting, or losing recovery-ability, or a variety of other problems. Personally, unless you know exactly what you are doing and are prepared to have to mess about, I wouldn't risk it. Windows 8 is not like older Windows OS's and doesn't behave he same with cloning software due to the boot partitions it needs. You can run it under old windows style boot, but its not optimal and you won't get the best out of your SSD or this laptop.

If you follow the tried and tested method I recommended (see full instructions in the first post of this thread), not only are you guaranteed a working install, it also seems to optimise the OS for the SSD (I don't know if clonezilla does), your recovery/backup software continues to work with F4, plus you have an emergency backup USB in case anything goes wrong - for the sake of the cost of the 32GB USB stick (probably less than you paid for a 1GB a year or so ago), I would still recommend this route. It will also have you back up and running in about 20 minutes from tightening the last screw on the bottom of the laptop.

 

The are some free programs which you can assign to a hotkey in order to shutoff the monitor. here's a discussion thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/notebook-dummy-guide-articles/376882-hotkey-turn-off-monitor.html

 

Any idea why my desktop graphics score is so low?

 

Wow, it's odd that you would score so low in desktop graphics while still scoring a 6.7 for gaming graphics. It may be testing the integrated graphics processor instead of the dedicated gpu for the desktop graphics test. I just ran the same test on mine and scored a 6.6 in desktop graphics, so a 3.4 is certainly too low. I looked in the Switchable Graphics app for the specific program that runs the system test, but couldn't find it, so you might try setting Global Settings to Maximize Performance when plugged in.

 

I switched my global settings to Maximize Performance and still got a 3.4. Maybe I should've rebooted before the test? That's the only thing I can think of.

 

Ugh, sorry for all the questions but I have another. So the Samsung website says the ATIV Book 8 has a SATA2 interface, which to my knowledge maxes out at 3Gbps. The Samsung 840 Pro that I ordered, on the other hand, is SATA 3 and is capable of 5+Gbps. Does this mean that my SSD will be limited to the SATA2 interface speeds, or is the max speed only determined by the hard drive?

 

Hey guys! I'm going to upgrade stock 6235 network card to Killer 1202. Is it possible? Any experience and issues with hardware compatibility? Thank you.

 

Ok I will follow the tested way, thanks.

I think it is referred to the interface of the hdd, You should look the specs of the chipset to see if it has a sata 3 interface but I am sure about it

 

Hello. I am sorry if this is perhaps in the wrong place, but I do not know where else to say this. I have had this laptop for a while now, and while I did have a bunch of problems the first few weeks, they all seem to have gone. I now only have one problem and I can't find a solution to it anywhere. It is the tiniest problem but it is annoying me so much.

Basically when I have headphones plugged in, and I change the volume level to a higher percentage, a notification comes up warning me about possible hearing damage and all that. I have looked everywhere in the Realtek HD Audio Manager to disable this notification, and searched online but I cannot find anything. When I first got the laptop I remember disabling it but I think after I did the BIOS update it has been re-enabled. Please could someone help me disable this?

 

Hey TrafficCone, welcome to NBR!

My model is an earlier Series 7, so maybe this is not what you are looking for, but let me try anyway: When I plug in headphones, the notification icon in the taskbar tray gives me a bubble:



I always disable that notification icon first thing after installation, by clicking the small button in the Realtek Audio Manager control panel (see below). With the notification icon gone, I never get any peeps from Realtek.





Again, dunno if that's what you're seeing

Oh, and don't worry, I'd say you're posting in the right place.

 

Thanks for mentioning this. It reminded me that member gadgetrants had pointed out a utility called Autohotkey in this post when we had the exact same discussion last month. That tool looks rather amazing, and something I should check out. I am not sufficiently bothered by the display thing to install software just for that. But this utility had a ton of other interesting features.

Edit: Just tried the MonitorOff utility form the thread you linked. That's actually quite nifty, no installation, just put a shortcut in the Start Menu (or Desktop or wherever). Thanks again!

 

Thanks for the help but that isn't what I'm seeing, this is what comes up:

I tried doing what you did too, hiding the icon, but the notification still comes up whenever I set my volume above 50%. Again this only happens when I have headphones plugged in.
It also doesn't come up near the task bar, it appears in the top right corner of my screen.

 

Got it, thanks for posting that. Yeah I don't get that one. It's a Win8 style notification (same style as when you pop in an SD card). Probably something Realtek added in later driver versions than mine (I have Realtek HD Audio Driver 6.0.1.6748 from SW Update).

If it's not in the Realtek control panel, I would look in the Charms - Settings menu as well as in the Sounds control panel for any possible configuration options.

 

Ah got it! I just changed my notification options in "PC Settings" from the settings menu in charms so that I get no notifications from Realtek. Thanks for your help!

 

It will be fine assuming it's the same form factor and has 2 antennas (the ativ book 8 only has 2 antennas, i'm not sure all 3 are required). I install an intel 7260AC in mine, the network card is right next to the hard drive and is held down with 1 screw.

Yeah it's sata 3...

 

If it is in fact a SATA2 interface, your data transfer rates will cap at 3Gbps since data has to pass through both "gates".

 

The supplied HDD is SATA2, however, the interface of the laptop is definitely SATA3.

 

YES! I thought it was having a second monitor attached that was causing it. You've confirmed that it is the USB3 port, huh? Thanks for the link!

 

I'm also experiencing this - Samsung Series 7 Chronos NP780Z5E S01UK here.

I can also confirm that this happens ONLY after a sleep/wake cycle, but have also noticed that it doesn't seem to matter if you plug/unplug a USB3 device - for me, it happens as long as there is ANY storage device (not tried any non-storage USB devices as I don't have any to hand) plugged into the USB3 port, including USB2 drives:

A few moments after completing the sleep/wake, the device is recognised and the "Tap to choose what happens with removable drives" popup appears.
Then CSRSS.exe and System both grow to consume about 35% and growing CPU usage, making the system slowly grind to a halt. Rebooting fixes, but is a pain.

I also note that you cannot Eject the USB3 device, as windows is still using it, which means that Windows is locking the device open.

Already posted on the forum linked to here, but off to advise Samsung, still not sure whether this is a Samsung or Microsoft or a driver issue!

I've been wondering about this problem for a while as it keeps cropping up for me, so it's good to finally narrow down the causes - even if it's not fixed, at least I can avoid the triggers!

EDIT: Cannot raise as an e-mail support ticket with Samsung - NP780Z5E isn't even listed (none of the 2013 Chronos/Ativ models are). Anyone know the (UK) support e-mail address to just bypass the personal detail entering page??

 

damn...the wait for the 8870 version in the US is killing me...i'm liking the Gigabyte P35K more than this now...

 

I tried to reproduce this, even though I have a very different model (NP700Z3A, Series 7 Sandy Bridge). And it's just not happening here: I don't get the CPU spike, and I am able to Eject external drives immediately after a sleep/wake cycle. (Note that I am NEVER able to Eject if Task Manager is open).

Unlike Win7, which uses Samsung provided USB3 drivers (different for the various models, depending on USB3 controller), Win8 has built-in USB3 drivers. There ARE no Samsung provided Win8 USB3 drivers for these models (NP770/780/870/880) as far as I can tell.

Of course it can be some other Samsung utility or driver that I don't have on mine -- either because it's different hardware, or because mine is a clean install. I have Win8 Pro with only the Samsung items listed in this post.

If it's just a Win8 bug (not hardware specific) I wonder why I am not seeing it on mine.

Possible busy little bees that may want to use every idling moment to scan that external disk are:

- Search Indexer: I specify exactly which drives and folders I want indexed. Externals not among them.

- Windows Media Sharing Library updater: I disable that service in Task Scheduler and disable sharing in the Network and Sharing Center control panel. BTW, I also have File and Printer Sharing disabled under Network Adapter Settings.

- IntelliMemory: Looking for interesting files to cache. I don't have that on mine, so I don't know.

I am just throwing out there what I can think of

Edit: This screenshot lists exactly which SW Update items I have installed and which I haven't ("Installable"). Again, I know it's different hardware, I am just trying to give you something with which to compare.

 

Okay so I just installed my SSD and was able to install Windows and everything. Everything appears to be running great, expect when I try to run the Windows Experience Index I get this error right after it finishes the memory test.



Any idea why?

Here was my installation process

1) Make bootable recovery disk on USB through Samsung Recovery

2) Switch hard drives

3) Turn off Fast BIOS, Turn off Secure Boot, Select CSM and UEFI OS

4) Boot into USB, go through recovery, when prompted to size partitions I gave all of the space to C: and none for D:

5) Given that I gave no space for a partition, I was surprised when "Setting up recovery partition" or something like that took a long time

6) Was able to set up Windows 8, deleted intellimemory and other various bloat

7) Installed drivers from SWUpdate...noticed there was no BIOS option which was weird considering I thought it was there when I did this after first getting the computer

8) Did all the AMD driver stuff described in OP

9) Windows Defender wouldn't turn on, but I fixed that by uninstalling Spybot

10) Ran WEI...and the picture happened. It dimmed my display, did the memory test and then displayed the error. Checked the log to find this
1420171 (6612) - exe\processresults.cpp:2076: > Wrote CRS score to the registry 63
1420171 (6612) - exe\processresults.cpp:2097: > Wrote memory score to the registry 74
1420171 (6612) - exe\processresults.cpp:2116: > Wrote cpu score to the registry 63
1420171 (6612) - exe\processresults.cpp:2137: > Wrote DWM score to the registry 67
1420171 (6612) - exe\processresults.cpp:2157: > Wrote D3D score to the registry 67
1420171 (6612) - exe\processresults.cpp:2177: > Wrote disk score to the registry 81

It looks to me like the test was completed even though it didn't take long at all and it gave me that error. They look like the actual scores from before but with a better disk, only it didn't take very long at all. At the end of the log...
1420187 (6612) - exe\main.cpp:4376: ERROR: 0X80004005 DataStore::BuildFormalFromMostRecentPartialAssessments failed.
1420187 (6612) - exe\main.cpp:5148: ERROR: Unable to save validated results.
1420187 (6612) - exe\processwinsaterror.cpp:0298: Unspecified error 46 occured.
1420187 (6612) - exe\processwinsaterror.cpp:0319: Writing exit code, cant msg and why msg to registry

Looks like it wasn't allowed to save. Disabled Windows Defender...no luck. The only other solution I've found on other forums was to update the BIOS, but SW Update isn't giving me the option. I know WEI isn't the most important thing in the world, but it's really bugging me that it won't save and is making me paranoid that I messed up during installation somewhere (maybe in the OS selection since it wasn't a clean install?)

 

So I am really enjoying this laptop a ton, but have some odd errors and such I would like to sort out. One involves a missing .dll and windows update error and one is something I have no clue about. I am running with a Samsung 500gb 840 (not pro) SSD in it and am wondering if it would be smart to preform a clean install of windows 8. Is there a way to do this without repurchasing Windows 8 and will it mess up my SSD that doesn't have native TRIM support to install this without having the Samsung Magician software?

 

Make sure the USB 3.0 suspend option in BIOS is ENABLED. I'm facing the exact same issue, but I had the USB 3.0 suspend option DISABLED, ENABLING the option solves the issue.

 

Referencing my previous post, I'm starting to think my only option is a clean install. I know that WEI isn't the most important thing in the world, but the fact that it isn't working after trying everything is bugging me and makes me think that I messed up somewhere during installation.

I have tried basically everything I've found on google to get this thing working and nothing has. I'm also confused as to why BIOS isn't an option in SWUpdate like I'm pretty sure it was when I first opened the computer. Could it be because I changed the OS mode to CSM and UEFI from just UEFI?

 

try running this command before doing a clean install.

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Then reboot.

Run SFC /scannow

 

Just did that, no luck I really have no idea what could be stopping it from saving. The only thing I can think of is that BIOS thing. Any idea why BIOS is appearing in SWUpdate?

EDIT: Annnnnd I blue screened. I installed CPU-Z, then GPU-Z, and then a couple seconds after GPU-Z opened I blue screened with Page_FaultIn_NonPaged_Area or something like that. I'm so confused right now.

EDIT: So I'm unhealthily impaitent and re-recovered. First thing I noticed, it took about 1/100th as long. It also said "From HDD" on the recover screen. I'm pretty sure it said "From USB" last time. Maybe I'm seeing things. Also realized my background picture from before I even installed the SSD is there, but I guess that carried over from the recover. I also realized that I never installed Samsung Magician so I did that hoping that it would fix my whole WEI problem because when I re-did it after the re-recover I realized it gave me the error after doing the disk check. Now I'm pretty sure the disk check was the last one and was actually completed, but it was worth a shot. Nothing. God I'm so impatient, now I have to re-install all my junk and redo all my settings all for nothing. Also, no BIOS in SW Update again. Was it even there the first time or am I crazy?

One second I love everything about computers and the next I consider switching from CS to Library studies. Please for the love of god just someone please let me blindly follow your instructions. Should I just do a clean install? I looked around forever and couldn't even find an ISO to use. Did I f up the BIOS somehow? Do I even understand what BIOS is? Probably not.

Okay, I know I sound crazy but I always freak out when computer stuff doesn't work and I can't fix it and I think I ruined it forever. Just to clarify, my problems are...

1) Did I do the recovery right? I set up a recovery USB from the HDD before I made the switch, booted into it, set everything to a C drive, no D. Then I stupidly re-recovered. It gave me 3 options. The SSD, The USB, and then the USB with a [UEFI] before it. I chose the [UEFI] one.

2) WEI doesn't work. The first time I did it it ran all the tests and then gave me the error. I figured out through the log that the tests were completed, they just couldn't be saved. Every time I run it after the first time it goes "Testing memory" or whatever it says for memory and then gives me the error again.

3) I got the blue screen before I re-recovered. It hasn't happened since so I'm honestly guessing that was un-related. Maybe not. Idk, sorry for my rushed manner of typing, I'm just freaking out and annoyed.

4) That's it really. It doesn't sound like much...but that's probably because it isn't. AAAAAAHHHHHH.

EDIT: Okay so in Magician under Over Provisioning it says "Selected volume is not formatted with the NTFS file system" but in Disk Management it says it is.

 

Feels like faulty memory module, probably with the system memory or perhaps the SSD... Try taking out the removable memory stick from your laptop and run as per normal to see if the same symptoms persists. If yes, probably its memory fault with the inbuilt memory or memory chip fault of the SSD. If it works perfectly well, replace the removable memory stick.