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

The Samsung Recovery partitions are the last two. I see that your SAMSUNG_REC seems to be labeled RECOVERY (the very last 1024MB partition). I wonder if they changed its name in newer versions of SRS6.

If others can post the partition names on their machines, that would be good info. The most accurate way (without having to use 3rd party tools) is to open a Command Prompt As Administrator, then type the following commands:

DISKPART (to start the Disk Partition manager)
LIST VOLUME (to display all partitions, including their names)
EXIT (to close DISKPART)
EXIT (to close Command Prompt)

And yes, since you have the Bootable Factory Image backup on a USB key, and you're going to leave Recovery Partitions alone on the original HDD (though you can still use the remaining space), you should be fine deleting those two partitions.

For those who don't have such backups and still want to reclaim some space on an SSD, I would recommend deleting only SAMSUNG_REC2 (the big Recovery Data partition) and leave RECOVERY (SAMSUNG_REC) alone: It's only 1GB, and it lets you still boot Recovery with F4 and restore the Factory Image from an external drive.

And also, yes, once you have deleted those partitions (you can use DISKPART if Disk Management doesn't want to delete them), you can simply Extend your C: drive into the unallocated space using Disk Management. Nothing more you need to do -- about disk space anyway; there are many other things in general life which you probably need to do

 

I was planning to do the same as pranktank but I will be using a hybrid 1TB drive and also I will recover the original drive to make a 900GB secondary partition and leave the windows installation and files working. The 900GB will be the one I will use for storage.

 

I think that's what pranktank meant to do as well: Putting the original 1TB in an external USB enclosure, and use it for general storage. You could probably delete all partitions except the two Recovery partitions (and maybe the EFI system partition) and still boot Recovery from it and restore to factory. To be super safe, I'd say leave all partitions in place, and just use the empty space on the big Windows partition (as you said). OR shrink that Windows partition and create a pure Data partition in the empty space.

 

That is what I meant, I want to shrink the windows partition and use the rest of windows space in the other partition (D to store my data with the external enclosure. So if I have any problem and the computer doesn't start I just swap the HDD and its ready to go.

 

^
That's a good plan!

 

I was able to get it through my university .

I bought mine for €299,99 which is almost as cheap as the regular 840 which is much slower and already out for a long time. I couldn't wait, but I'm sure you'll get an awesome price if you do .

That's convenient, thanks for the links! Won't I lose BLE through the ativ book 8 settings version? Or is it okay if it's enabled only in the BIOS?

These are my exact plans. It will come in handy when I run into trouble and have the windows and recovery partitions ready and untouched on the hdd. I'll write my steps down, so we can help each other out and make a guide for the procedure.

 

Settings is basically the same package across many models, and relies on the BLE feature in BIOS -- as long as the BLE module is still included with the Settings package installed. I still had BLE in Settings 2.0.0.55 (downloaded from NP880Z5E), but it's gone in Settings 2.1.0.20 (downloaded from NP940X3G). But that's just the switch in Settings; I can still set it in BIOS, and it works fine, because it's a firmware function.

 

So today I woke up and decided to get rid of my 3rd party antivirus. Hopefully Windows Defender will keep me safe (I'll use much more care when surfing the web)
What about SW Update? I heard it could be removed in order to free some RAM and resources. Since I'm avoiding most of the updates offered (like the wifi card update, which is working and I don't want to mess it up), I shouldn't need it, I can still manually install the updates. Has anyone of you uninstalled SW update??

 

I was having issues with my usb 3.0 ports. Every time I plug a usb in there or charge my phone/headset, the laptop begins to lag. Everything becomes slower from opening browsers to even basic folders and files. This leads me to restarting the pc for it to function as it normally would. I have no such issues when i am using the other two usb (2.0) ports. Is anyone else experiencing similar problems or have a solution to the issue?

 

See if the fixes discussed in this thread provide a solution.

John

 

Yay

Samsung ATIV Book 8 in sig has been successfully updated:

1. With Crucial M500 960GB SSD (had to do factory image clone as Samsung Recovery complained that source disk was 906GB and destination was too small for current settings clone on M500 which reported 894GB size.
2. Also updated Intel 6235 Wifi card to Intel 7260-AC with latest Intel drivers - connects at 650Mbps with my Dlink 865L 802.11ac router positioned in the other room
   
   
   

Running SW Update that came with the factory restored image now but can't seem to find my model in the list ? Okay going to samsung.com/au/support/model/NP880Z5E-X01AU-downloads to get SW Update app from there

Oh anyone experience this, if I have HDMI out to my Dell U2410 monitor's HDMI port for cloned display mode, it seems it disables all sound on my laptop ? Unplug HDMI cable from laptop and sound is back.

Album photos added here



Partitioned Crucial 960GB M500 SSD into 2 partitions C and D

 

I had this issue aswell, you have to exchange the host controller for usb 3.0. some devices dont work with it yet. Theres a tutorial on how to do it here. Its a bit of a hassle but it worked for me.

Windows 8 and Intel USB 3.0 Host Controllers | Plugable

Btw you should put this on first page, was looking ages to find a solution for it.

 

Does anyone own a ATIV Book 6 (Model Number - NP680Z5E-X01US)? I have been trying to update the BIOS through SW Update, but it always fails. I checked a thread saying that you can use BiosUpdate.exe to update it, but I can not find the one for my model. I've noticed that the laptop runs slowly when I wake it up from sleep and I want to see if updating the BIOS would help its performance.

 

The standalone BIOS Update program (link in first post here) is generic and, I believe, works with all recent Samsung notebooks. Give it a try. Run the program to check if any new BIOS exists. Then download the new BIOS and finally run the new BIOS update program As Administrator after closing other programs.

John

 

Hi

Is it possible to upgrade the CPU in the NP780Z5E? If so, easy to prise apart?

Thinking of getting the ivybridge i5 model and upgrading the CPU down the line

thanks

 

Good move on the AV. Microsoft's offering is perfectly adequate and not very resource hungry compared to most of the other ones available.

I wouldn't remove SW Update, it's useful for keeping your laptop updated with the latest drivers. What I would do is disable SAgent, which is the annoying pop up message that sits in the tray and tells you that you should re-install Intellimemory every 2 minutes

To get rid of that, see my post here. You will then just need to manually run SW Update every week or two, or whenever you see someone on here mention an update!

 

Thanks a lot, this resolved the issue. The tutorial was a bit of a hassle but it was clearly worth it. Better to finally have the usb port working rather than being forced to restart your laptop. Thanks

 

Thanks a lot, this resolved the issue. The tutorial was a bit of a hassle but it was clearly worth it. Better to finally have the usb port working rather than being forced to restart your laptop. Thanks

 

hey guys,

so today I downloaded the 3dmark (not sure which version - the free one) and I got a general score of 2105.
details:
icestorm: 58416
cloud gate: 9682
firestrike: 2105
on all tests it says graphics card not recognized - bla bla generic vga.

I'm with 13.8 beta

are these expected values?

 

Hi,

I've installed the hybrid HDD and so far so good. I had no problem opening the computer. It wasn't as easy as other computers but it took me 5 minutes. Just unscrew and with your nails open a bit the front and then start pulling the plastic slowly and that's it.

The computer starts in about 10 to 15 seconds, I don't know exactly how much yet. I will have to time it. Anyway, the HDD is faster than the old one, even when is using the plates instead of the cache. It only costed me 106€ and now I have 1GB and loading stuff is fast, at least most of the software which I use everyday. Maybe in the future when 1GB SSD are affordable I will get one but for now this is for me the best relation money/performance.

I formated the old HDD with the recovery and left 800gb for the secondary drive which will be the one that I will use to store stuff. The rest I left it for windows and I updated everything so if I have any problem I will just plug it in and it is ready to go.

By the way the clean W8 makes things great. You can tell that performance is better without all the bloatware.

 

Thanks a bunch! Everything went smoothly. I decided to keep the smaller SAMSUNG_REC partition for now.
The DiskPart info:


If you notice DiskPart lists the "SAMSUNG_REC2" partition as "SAMSUNG_REC" which is peculiar. I hope this doesn't confuse people. Minitools correctly lists the "SAMSUNG_REC2" partition:
View attachment 101173

After deleting the partition and extending C: DiskPart...


C: 457 --> 475 GB. I also tried F4 on a reboot and it loaded Recovery just fine.

+1
I spent hours trying to find the .iso without success. Microsoft is so annoying with this.

Had to go with the dirty install and get rid of the bloat approach. I used Samsung's image that the computer came with (via USB).

pranktank, as Dannemand implied in his reply, you may want to start off with the default Window's driver for the WiFi and stick with it if you're not having problems. I had to troubleshoot two major problems: 1) WiFi dropping issues (which is common apparently) and 2) USB 3.0 use lagging the whole computer like crazy.

The first post in this thread has a handy guide to troubleshoot the WiFi problem -- Dannemand compiled the info in different threads and summarized the major solutions (Thanks!). Apparently people have had success with either the Windows driver or the Samsung driver the computer comes with. I ended up going with the later solution which requires you to extract the driver using SW Update. One thing I'd add to the guide is to check and make sure that Intel PROSet Wireless is not installed (again at the end) if you end up installing drivers. The guide suggests uninstalling Intel PROSet Wireless in the beginning but it was not until I read a post in the Intel thread regarding the problem that PROSet got reinstalled again somewhere along the way. Uninstalling it again made all the difference. You may not have to deal with all this if you're doing a clean install and make sure not to update the WiFi driver via Windows update and SW Update. The thread over at Intel regarding the problems with this product line is massive and last I checked the new drivers released seems to make the problem even worse. Hopefully they come out with a fix soon. The one small annoyance is that I get all these notifications from SW Update for the same WiFi driver. I have to manually check to see if there are other driver updates available.

The other problem I had was the computer lagging like crazy when I plugged in a USB 3.0 external HDD. I'm not sure if I had the lagging problems related to the computer going in and out of sleep as others have suggested. I solved the problem pretty quickly, before I had much experience with it by uninstalling IntelliMemory in windows and enabling "USB S3 Wake-up" in BIOS. I'm not sure which one solved the problem. I kind of wanted to try IntelliMemory out but it seems to give some people problems and may have been a problem for me; something to consider when you're contemplating installing IntelliMemory.

Other than those two issues to be wary of... before taking the computer apart make sure to unplug the computer and cut the battery power supply by pressing the button in the emergency hole on the bottom of the computer using paperclip (English Manual pg 96). Be patient with taking off the bottom. It'd be helpful to have something made of plastic that's thinner and stronger than credit card.

If you're unhappy with your external HDD enclosure, I recommend this one:
Amazon.com: Anker® Uspeed USB 3.0 & eSATA Hard Drive Enclosure for 2.5-Inch SATA 9.5mm & 12.5mm HDD and SSD [UASP Support]: Computers & Accessories
The engineering is solid, no screws, and it's been working great thus far. It's a little thinner than a WD MyPassport but also about 20% bigger. If I can do away with the e-SATA option and have it be smaller, that'd be ideal.

For those of you considering switching to SSD, I HIGHLY recommend it. It's a must IMO as the HDD is so clearly the bottleneck that keeps the computer from performing to its fullest.

I had the same issue. I uninstalled IntelliMemory and enabled "USB S3 Wake-up" in BIOS. I'm not sure which of the two solved the problem but the issue is gone. Do you have IntelliMemory installed?

Unfortunately, my U2410 is in storage at the moment. Just to state some obvious things to check in case you haven't already done them... The U2410 has a sound bar accessory so it gets recognized as a sound output device (actually receives sound signal portion of the HDMI). Did you try right clicking on the speaker icon --> playback devices to make sure the Realtek High Definition Audio Speakers is set as default device? I used to use the monitor with an NVIDIA card which had the option (in its control panel) to turn off the HDMI sound transmission. I'm assuming that AMD has a similar feature that you can turn off.

This is random. I actually have the Plugable UD-3000. Are Plugable devices suppose to cause the lag problem? I had my issues with other devices (Seagate external HDD). Are only certain devices supposed to cause the lag problem? Do you mind specifying which devices gave you the lag problems?

Did you set "USB S3 Wake-up" to "enabled" in the BIOS.

 

Hi guys, it's me again
After installing the Samsung 840 PRO and RAM Kingston 8GB everything is working fine. Now I want to delete the recovery partition. After create the image on a USB flash drive, how to check if it works before delete the partitions on SSD?

 

Cheers found it just disable Dell U2410 as playback device when HDMI connected

Only way I see that you can check is recovery to factory image and see if it works. Might also need a backup USB drive too in case the original USB drive dies ?

With regards to Intellimemory, has anyone got any real proof that is better to have it disabled/uninstalled than enabled ? I did some tests for Intellimemory here. And Intellimemory acts like linux caching and that it will release memory when other apps require memory. So really performance should be better with Intellimemory enabled rather than disabled even with SSD drive in place as memory is faster than SSD

 

So every time i used a usb 3.0 on the usb 3.0 ports i would get the system and the client server runtime process to go up to a total of 40-50 cpu usage. I used the tutorial and it was gone for a while, but i just noticed its back. Ive just changed the usb 3 wake up in the bios to enabled, but i have to tried it.

 

Thanks this “fix” actually worked pretty fine. Its kind of strange why DX11 causes scaling problems

 

This change & the associated hassle with the process needed makes me very nervous. Simply enabling USB S3 Wake-Up in the BIOS resolves this problem.

I'm not sure if there's any benefit going down the route your talking about here, but if it has other benefits, please advise!

 

greetings. new owner here. my work purchased this for me yesterday. i was leary on this model, and actually opted for a different, but since my work required it be purchased at best buy, i got this one. love it so far

However, im having a couple issues. They were probably addressed over these 245 pages.

I installed the latest drivers noted on page 1 of this thread. I also removed a lot of suggested bloatware, However, it doesnt appear that teh graphics every switches, and utilizes the AMD driver. Is there a way or a program i can get that will show me which card s active, and allow me to force a card to activate? i have forced programs to ue high performance card, but its still not activating.

I am also unable to open my samsung settings app. I click the icon, and it shows the loading icon for a few seconds, and then just never loads. I am going to try and uninstall, and reinstall this.

Any Suggestions GREATLY appreciated

 

An issue I've been having with my 8870M: Basically my problem is that my GPU load continuously fluctuates between 40-65%. Heat is not a problem, my GPU has been staying at around 68C, and I'm using a 120W PSU to replace the 90W that came with the laptop. I've also tried applying small overclocks in MSI afterburner, but my GPU load never changes much. I've noticed while looking at GPU Z that my core voltage never goes above 1.000V, however. Could this be the problem? It just seems to me that the card would prefer a higher voltage considering it seems to be limited at 1V right now. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Great. Please let us know if it fixed the problem. It's definitely a common issue, evident from all the posts regarding the problem in this thread. There's also this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/728804-severe-performance-issues-np880z5e-x01ub-2.html
but there's not much in the thread that adds (solution-wise). It just says that other users have successfully resolved the issue by enabling "USB S3 Wake-Up" in BIOS. Guru Dannemand states that it's a workaround implying that it doesn't directly address the issue ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...ance-issues-np880z5e-x01ub-2.html#post9334179).

I agree that this issue should be added to the first page, but it's not entirely clear what's going on. So please post if it solved your issues. So are you saying that it happens with any USB 3.0 advice that you plug into the USB 3.0 ports? or just certain ones? Can you clarify please? Thanks.

did you make sure check the "bootable" option? Just follow the guide to see if it works...
plug the USB drive in...
1. Boot into BIOS, press F2 on Samsung Logo
2. Go to "advanced", disable "Fast Bios Mode"
3. Go to "boot" -> "secure boot", and disable it. On OS Mode Selection choose "CSM and UEFI OS"
4. Now it should find your bootable Windows device (USB key)
[5. Install Windows as usual]
6. Change back fast boot to enable, leave secure boot as it is. With fast boot on it only finds the SSD but no external drives.

Obviously don't follow through with step 5 if all you want to do is make sure you made your USB backup correctly. Just exit the program / reboot. Once you check that it works you can delete the 17GB partition and extend C: <-- I just did this so go back a couple pages in this forum; the posts that I made may be of some help.

I'm not sure whether it caused my serious lagging issues. It's more likely the fact that I didn't have USB S3 Wake-up enabled in BIOS. I'm contemplating whether to try out IntelliMemory again, but want to hear from others on whether they had serious issues with IntelliMemory. I seemed to see posts that imply having problems but nothing concrete or specific. As you implied, an confirmed by other posts, it seems to make more sense for HDD and perhaps less for SSD.

I noticed your windows experience tests...
"Processor: 7.8
Memory: 7.8
Graphics: 7.0
Gaming Graphics: 7.0
Primary hard disk: 8.1"

We have the same specs but I have lower graphics scores...


It's more likely because I did nothing with regards to my graphics card (e.g. no driver update). iirc my scores were the same with IntelliMemory on. Advice on getting my graphics performance up to par? I guess I should look into updating CCC.

 

i'm just using default AMD/GPU drivers no updates done

Yeah we basically have same specs besides different SSDs.

I have no lagging issues at all. I did use Samsung Recovery to factory clone to my Crucial M500 though so not sure if that makes any difference.

 

Thank you, I know you meant it well; but guru status is not exactly what I am striving for What I do most of the time, is merely to pass on information and advice posted by others; a side benefit from having to read all posts as they come through the forum.

Whenever possible, I will try to test and verify things on my own, and that's where I can give more complete and certain advice.

In this case, I was unable to reproduce the CPU usage/csrss issue on my own NP700Z3A (as described back here). So I am merely relaying the verified advice posted by Shinji_U ( here and here) and by damouk ( here) who own this model. And indeed, it appears that enabling USB S3 Wake-Up in BIOS is a workable solution.

The reason I call it a workaround, is because it really is a driver bug that shouldn't require a BIOS setting: There are legitimate reasons why some users would NOT want to enable USB Wake-up (potentially causing unintended wake-up from USB devices); yet they must, to avoid triggering this bug.

I took notice when BkkJul posted that link a few posts backs ( here) because it is an actual software solution to a software problem. But as others have commented, it is still somewhat of a hack. Personally, I would stick with the USB Wake-up until an official solution comes from Microsoft, Intel or Samsung.

Oh, and I agree, posting this solution on the Opening Post might be a good idea since the question comes up every few pages. I'll leave that decision to pranktank, who is doing a tremendous service to owners of 2013 Series 7 / AB8 models by maintaining this thread as well as his review thread.

 

I only need to boot from a flash drive, but if it is done with the active partition recovery, boot is still going on with SSD. How to check the boot from a flash drive without deleting the recovery partition?
After loading to the main recovery menu I'll close it.

 

Does anybody have one of these? What do you think?

Samsung Series 7 Chronos Skins | invisibleSHIELD by ZAGG

 

All right, so I've got my hands on a NP780Z5E, which is the black AtivBook 8 with touchscreen. I have been playing games on it and noticed that the temps go up to 94C when the room temperature is around 22C. I have used Openhardwaremonitor to see how hot it gets. According to the retailer, these temperatures are absolutely normal for the laptop, but I am a little doubtful.... What do you guys think?

 

Did you create the factory image on USB drive and make it bootable ? If you did, for me to make USB drive bootable (i use for loading memtest86+ for testing upgraded memory) I did the following with USB drive already plugged in:

1. F2 into bios
2. Set in boot menu, Secure boot = Disabled, OS Mode Selection = CSM and UEFI OS
3. Set boot priority so USB drive before Windows Boot Manager listing
4. Then save and exit bios

That's from memory and boots my USB drive fine to load memtest86+

ooh nice wondering if it fits NP880Z5E-X01AU ?

I don't game on mine, but have you tried other software monitors like hwinfo or aid64 to see if it's correct.

Intel Core i7 3635QM rated max die temp is 105C ARK | Intel® Core from reviews seem 8870m around 74-88C, so 95C ain't too far off ?

 

94 °C, although perfectly safe, is not optimal in my opinion and too close to the throttling point of 95. Try lifting the back of your laptop a bit, it can easily make a 10 °C difference.

 

So, I have another doubt.
Regarding the battery: I have the laptop since august 13th, and I have calibrated the battery twice so far. what concerns me is that it has been only 3 weeks yet the battery wear that Battery Bar and PCWizard show is up to 2,5%. I don't know if that's normal for a 3 week laptop. For the record, I have used it mostly as a DTR and in College, mostly plugged in with the Battery Life Extender Option enabled, Cycle count up to 9.
Some advice?

 

Just returned mine today to Best Buy. I can't handle the image persistence on this laptop. I switch between a coding window and google chrome a lot. I'll have facebook as my first tab, and you could clearly see the "f" on the tab and everything else around it. It always stayed that way for at least 5-10 minutes. That is just an example as well. You could clearly see everything else outlined a lot of the time and it wouldn't go away very fast.

Even on a cold boot, if I looked close enough I could see the different "bars" from google chrome on the loading screen.

Awesome laptop, sadly the two I got didn't seem to work out too well.

 

Hi AlonsoCaGi, I don't think we properly welcomed you to NBR when you first posted a few days ago. Welcome here, and congrats on that great laptop.

I agree 2.5% is a bit high after only 9 charge cycles. When calibrating, did you disable BLE first? Ideally, you want to disable BLE, charge fully (until charge LED changes color), disconnect, then run the calibration until the laptop dies, then charge it fully again (till LED changes color). That will ensure correct measurement.

But you don't want to run calibration too often: When you fully charge, and PARTICULARLY when you fully deplete the battery, that is where you cause the most wear.

 

Oh my, don't worry about such things, I find it more than welcoming all the help you offer to us not-so-tech-savvy owners. Thanks anyway

No, I didn't disable BLE first, but while charging. Is it actually useful to keep BLE on while plugged in?
Well, I'll run calibration again once I get home OR I'll wait till, let's say 30 cycles? What do you think would be the proper course of action?
The laptop spends most of time plugged though, which means wear will be accumulating often regardless. I don't want to go to a Tech Support center so early in the laptop's life ._.

Thanks once again for your help

 

When I do this refresh or reinstall, all the hundreds of factory bloatware coming back, which gives me tons of headache. Uninstalling them took more than 2 hours yesterday and I'm still not sure I've got a completely clean windows. Is there any way to get a clean Windows, if I do not want install from media?

 

A small proportion of batteries come out of the factory with less than the design capacity. The shortfall show up as wear. I would wait a few months before running another calibration since each calibration cycle adds to the wear.

I would also keep BLE enabled unless there's a need to have the maximum battery charge in anticipation of a sustained period off-line. There is less damage to the battery chemistry when topping up to 80% compared to topping up to 100%.

John

 

I later learned that, unfortunately on these models, Windows Refresh (as well as Reset) includes all the standard bloatware from the factory installation. That means clean install (from Win8 media) or unbloating are your only options. You can use this post as guidance.

I agree 100% with John's post: Wait a few months calibrating again (to avoid further wear). And keep BLE enabled unless you need the last 20% battery time.

 

Thanks for the tip, it resolved my issue. I did not have to uninstall IntelliMemory, just enalbed USB S3 Wake Up in BIOS.
I followed the instructions posted by BkkJul but the problem still persisted.
Hopefully this is a permanent fix.
Thanks

 

I think that would be something interesting to try a fresh install of a windows 8.1 instead, as soon as an image will become available. If you are planning to buy a ssd in your shoes I'd hold my breath one month more just to install newest os and also because I believe Samsung then will release updated graphic drivers as well.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Microsoft has just released 8.1 to OEMs, but they will start to install it from October 17th. I doubt that it will be possible to find a Windows 8.1 install media before that date

 

My 840 evo just arrived . I hope my enclosure arrives tomorrow too so I can get started. I'll do some benches too.

 

Ok guys, I'll do as you say as it sounds most reasonable. Thanks for your guidance

 

Anyone know if NP880Z5E and the ATIV Book range's VGA and HDMI out ports are meant to work within laptop bios ? Meaning I can output laptop bios display to larger monitor such as Dell U2410 ?

I ask as I have a VGA2USB Epiphan frame grabber I normally use with desktop motherboards to capture bios output via the frame grabber. But with this laptop, the frame grabber isn't getting any signal from VGA out passthrough cable to my capture laptop which I usually use to capture desktop motherboards' bios outputs (Acer 3810T).

 

That's why I said to hold your breath something more.