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

Want to read something fun? Here's samsung's guidance on whether to update.

This is from this evening, 6:00pm EST.

Chat InformationPlease wait for a Samsung Agent to respond.
Chat InformationYou are now chatting with 'Paul'. There will be a brief survey at the end of our chat to share feedback on my performance today.
Chat InformationYour Issue ID for this chat is LTK111790993464Y
Paul: Hi, thank you for reaching out to Samsung technical support. How may I assist you?
John: Hi
John: I have a laptop
John: NP780Z5E-S01UB
Paul: I'll be happy to help you.
John: I would like to know if I can upgrade to windows 8.1
Paul: Okay, could you please give me a minute so that I can check the information for you.
John: thanks
Paul: You are welcome.
Paul: Thank you for holding. I appreciate your patience.
Paul: I'm happy to say that you can Upgrade the device to Windows 8.1
John: Ok, so I will not run into any driver issues?
John: I noted that SWupdate updated, but no other drivers appear to be available
John: no other 'new' drivers
John: And folks with this machine mentioned issues with not being able to control their screen brightness after the update
Paul: I'll provide you with the detailed descripted of Upgrading to the Windows 8.1.
John: ok
Paul: Please click on the below link.
Paul: Update to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8 - Microsoft Windows
Paul: Are you able to access the link above?
John: yes
Paul: Can I help you with anything else?
John: As long as you
John: re sure that the drivers are available for this laptop,no
Paul: I'm afraid; the drivers are not yet released for Windows 8.1.
John: So...
John: why did you tell me I could update?
Paul: You can find the model number at the bottom panel of the device.
John: what?
John: I already provided my model
Paul: Sorry for the above statement, please ignore it.
John: Ok, when do you expect the drivers to be available from samsung?
John: so that I can update to 8.1
Paul: The Update is available and you can Update it.
Paul: You can download and install the available drivers from the Sw Update Tool.
John: So the drivers are released for windows 8.1?
Paul: But all the drivers are not yet released.
John: Sorry, im a bit confused
John: which drivers are not yet available?
Paul: We do not have the information on the release date of the drivers.
John: Do you know which drivers are not yet released?
Paul: All the drivers.
John: Hah. Ok. Thanks for your guidance.

 

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. That really was pathetic.

I could understand and forgive Samsung for being tardy with those driver updates, there definitely can be reasons why it is more difficult and complicated than one might expect. But to NOT then have a clear warning with their support staff and on their web site -- AHEAD of Win 8.1 release -- that is to me the biggest failure.

Anyways, let's not get too carried away with the bashing. Not because they don't deserve it. But it doesn't really solve anything, it just adds empty calories to the thread -- this post of mine too

 

No more bashing, I was actually hoping to share some better news Looking forward to good news soon.

 

Has anybody with the 770Z5E model problems with wake up after sleep? I also cannot shutdown normally. It crashes and restarts.

 

Decided to check my battery for wear too since I noticed the estimated runtimes have dropped a lot in the past few months. It's only at 0.8%. Is it HWInfo that isn't accurate or is something draining my battery that I don't know of?

EDIT: it's at 73 cycles

 

870Z5E-X01PT with 2 months. 20 cyles, 2.5% wear level. It is possible to buy a samsung replacement battery?

 

No worries, you're good, I'm glad you posted that. I was mostly referring to my own post

 

After some experimentation I finally am on the SSD with the Samsung Recovery partition working. This may be old news but, here is what I had to do. First I tried using the guide and could indeed get the system working but, I wanted it with the windows in it current state.I tried using a disk image and of course it was too big so it failed. The simple solution would have been to shrink the partition. I tried shrinking the partition but, could not get it to shrink below 400gb due to unmovable files so, I tried easus to resize the partition. This did resize the windows partition but, disabled the recovery partition. I restored back to the baseline once again and tried windows defrag to deal with the unmovable files, this did not work, Finally after some searches and a little luck I saw a post that talked about using perfect disk and performing boot time defrags. Initially this did not work until I read a post that suggested resizing as low as I could then, performing a boot defrag after,the idea being that it would move the unmovable files to the left of the disk diagram. It worked so after 3 iterations of resizing followed by a boot-time defrag I finally got the C: partition small enough for an image that would fit on an SSD.

 

I just found it amusing. Kind of like the 'ol "who's on second? Third base!" Abbot and Costello routine (yes - I am old).

 

not sure about others, i have noticed a severe drop in battery life since upgrading to Win 8.1

Another thing i noticed is, im using samsung optimized power plan mode and the fact that every time i charge the laptop, the CPU is running at 100% with 0-5% usage.

This was not how my laptop was prior. Not sure if this has anything to do with catalyst drivers being broken. I only noticed the 100% usage after hearing the fans spinning with the computer at IDLE

 

Interesting...so I couldn't just, for instance, delete my files until the contents were smaller than 256GB (my SSD's size) because of the partition size? To clarify, are these the steps you used: Use EasUS to resize the partition (which partition? I'm assuming C: drive) as small as it will go, perform a boot time defrag with PerfectDisk, and then repeat the cycle two more times?

Unrelated: I've been out of this thread for a while cause everything's been working okay. Remembered to check if this laptop had actually launched after all...and they decided to go with the 8770 and 8GB RAM on the ATIV Book 8, while keeping everything else the same? Boy am I glad to be an early adopter now, my 8870 and 16GB RAM are sitting pretty here.

 

Yes it was the C: partition. I hardly ever have a system with a recovery partition since I generally build my systems and just install the OS. This was definitely a learning experience.

To summarize the steps that worked in the scenario in which I had setup my environment and wanted to keep all my software, settings and the Samsung recovery partitions.

1. Install a boot time defragger.

2. Resize the partition as small as it will go,

3. Set the defrag to run at boot time.

4 Repeat until you can resize C: to the size you need for your SSD.

5. Copy your disk using F4 and the copy disk utility.

 

Is PerfectDisk the best boot time defragger, or is there another you would recommend (that's free or has a trial)?

 

Don't defrag your SSD. You can open task scheduler (in windows) click new basic task and you should be able to start the defrag like a program.
Program/script = C:\Windows\System32\Defrag.exe
Argument = C: <-- USE YOUR DRIVE LETTER OF THE HDD NOT SSD

 

1. Try right-clicking on the movie and change the hardware acceleration option.
2. Firmly squeeze the case together - it is possible that the plastic clips aren't properly engaged.

If the capacity isn't significantly changed then the power consumption has increased. Have to gradually added more programs which are running in the background?

Did you look at the Processor power management settings in the Advanced power settings?

John

 

If you're not defragging a HDD, there's no point having this - don't believe the marketing blurb either, TRIM is ample for an SSD and either the software that came with the drive or the Windows TRIM functions are more than sufficient.

If you attempt to defrag A SSD, you will dramatically shorten its lifespan.

 

Thanks, I turnd it of and now I hope it stays quiet.

2. I I squeezed the case together, no difference, it still cracking.

 

New patch for SW Update. Unfortunately could not perform the installation. -10 Error.I'll try later.

 

I just tested it and it happened the same to me. Same error.

 

^ Likewise. Although now that patch is no longer available to me.

 

Just installed windows 8.1 and now every time i boot I get a flashing black screen when i try to run windows, right now im trying to restaurate it because i have to use tomorrow,

 

Boot into Safe Mode (mash Shift+F8 immediately after you start up, before the Samsung screen even - you'll know when it says Please Wait; if that doesn't work, power down mid-Samsung screen, it will think something is wrong and automatically run a diagnostic. After you get to the UEFI screen, Safe Mode is under boot options or something) and roll back the Intel HD4000 graphics driver to anything but the October 18th version (right-click on This PC, click Properties, then go to Device Manager). You will lose brightness changing functionality, but it will boot fine.

 

I thought the thing you were supposed to defrag was the HDD, to make it possible to reduce partition size?

 

Yap, no longer available. Samsung unpublished it.

 

What's no longer available, the update?

 

Defragging a HDD (i.e. a physical spinning disk with magnetic platters) is fine and can be done before changing partition sizes (though not essential) or just to generally maintain the file structure of the disk and keep your PC running efficiently. But you should NEVER defrag a SSD (i.e. a Solid State Drive, which is based on memory chips).

The way data is stored is very different, basically you should defrag an HDD and TRIM an SSD.

If you try to run the Windows "Defrag" utility on an SSD, it usually Trims the drive anyway, but only if the SSD has been properly configured into the Operating System (Windows 8 does this pretty well, older versions of Windows not so much!)

 

Right, but the entire idea behind defragging the HDD was to nudge all the hidden files over to the left so you can reduce partition size and clone to SSD (at least, according to jrouss). I don't think I need to do anything to the SSD at all beyond format it (I've got some data on there currently).

 

Is the Power Saving Mode also the Silent Mode(F11)?

And is it normal, that the fans get louder, when watching movies and youtube videos?

 

If you're referring to Power Saver (the power plan) then no, IIRC they are different (Silent Mode is more extreme than Power Saver is). Silent Mode does turn on Power Saver when it's activated, though.

Fans kicking up when watching video happens on my machine as well; video playback is a reasonably intensive procedure.

 

I finally got this update working. first I boot in safe mode with network capabilities then I downloaded the AMD beta drivers 13.11 and disable the AMD screen controller in device manager. Afterwards it boot normally but the screen wasnt sharp enough. So I went to Control Panel>Screen>Change size of all elements and put it back to 100%. Then I realized the function keys controlling brightness didnt work so I manually installed the Graphic Controllers for 64bit using the SW update tool. (you have to open it and click in the lower left corner "search model" and choose windows 8 and there you can find a list with all the drivers) hope this helps. Im not sure if the update was worth enough to loose 1 day of work looking for a fix. Cheers

CazSol

 

When I press on F11, it switches between "Power Save Mode" and "Samsung Optimized Mode". So yeah it is bassicly Power save mode, right?

Another question: My touchpad is creak at the right part (right click), it sounds like its glued together. Can I use silikon spray, because its pissing me off..

 

Hmm, does anybody know when to expect drivers for 8.1? I don't care who releases them first, AMD or Samsung, but I want my laptop's graphics to start working again.

 

1. Basically, yes, but there might be a few differences.

2. Is this because the pad is intended to click when you press it? Don't use any spray or similar. It won't be covered by warranty if something stops working.

They will come from Samsung.

The new drivers and software have just been released for the 9+ and 9 Lite so Samsung does appear to be working on the udating process.

John

 

I just posted a long reply in the 'Don't Install Win 8.1 Until...' thread on this site. I believe I have working graphics and full functionality on my Ativ Book 8 (USA Best Buy version) with the Windows 8.1 upgrade. I'm now running the AMD 13.11 beta drivers, together with older Intel 4000 drivers from SW Update (see my post in the other thread). I have display brightness control again via function keys. All function keys appear to be working. It was a lot of time messing around with the fixes though - large PITA for a published SW update, IMHO. One should not have to jump through the hoops I did to get a functioning system again. The biggest surprise was the fact that the laptop was on a black screen after no warnings through the update process!

Good luck to the rest of you in getting this update working...

 

im not sure if you can fix it, i realized i had this issue my self when i originally bought the Series 7 780z5e model from BestBuy. I took it apart and installed a SSD, and ever since then it had a light creak noise everytime my palm was sitting on it. I couldnt get rid of the noise no matter what. I brought it back to bestbuy to exchange it for the ATIV Book 8 which did not have this issue even after i reinstalled the SSD.

I even compared the back plastic panels that attach to the hinges side by side and they were identical. The problem with the plastic pieces is, some of them are slightly off specs, the hinges might not sit right. This is what happens when samsung decided to go cheap on their product and go plastic instead of full aluminum. I would have gladly paid 50$ more for a full premium aluminum product. If i didn't buy this laptop when it came out, i would of settled on a macbook pro with similar specs, better build, and ran Windows on it.

 

Did you just install the Intel driver from SWUpdate, or also the AMD driver?

Edit: never mind, the Intel driver by its lonesome did it for me. Thanks to you and aisnikkor, I finally have brightness back.

 

Hello,

since i had solved the problem with the blackscreen i have another problem. I have no powerplan settings except the samsung mode. Is anyone here who knows how to solve this problem? Rightclick on Wifi is still not working too.

 

If I click it or press it with more presure ( like tabbing on it), it sounds stange and click, like its something down under the mousepad.

 

Do you think, I can take it back and purchase the same one?

 

Silent Mode changes more things although I don't know exactly what. I can tell you that it limits the processor speed to about half its nominal frequency (you can check yourself with HWInfo). That does not happen if you only change your power plan. Additionally, it seems to affect some SSD performance because Read/Write speeds are significantly slower, less than half of what they are normally.

 

Silent Mode locks down your processor to its absolute minimum, sets fan speed to passive, forces intergrated graphics, and changes PCI Power Management on to its maximum settings, it swtiches to the Power Saver profile, which you can edit yourself to get your SSD performance back, Here is how:

1. Right Click on the battery icon, and choose Power Options

2. Next to Power Saving, choose Change Plan Settings

3. Click Change Advanced Power Settings ( A windows should open)

4. In the windows that opened, it will allow you to change ALL of the Silent Mode options, but you cannot change the processor lock down. Scroll down until you see PCI Express, then choose Link Power Statement. If you want full PCI Express Power, choose Off

 

^
Exactly, this!

 

Hey guys!

My friend wanted to update to 8.1 and during installation, his laptop shut down. Now he cannot even log in because of BSOD, which happens right after BIOS boots up. Is there any other way to repair this or is he forced to reformat disc and reinstall win8?

Thanks

 

Can he get to the Samsung screen? If you interrupt it (hold down the power button until power-down) it should clue in that something is wrong on the next boot-up, and throw up the UEFI screen where you can do Safe Mode, Refresh, and a whole bunch of other things that should help.

 

New "SW Update" update available:

 

Installed. I have no idea what the update was for. Still does not show all my programs on it.

 

Samsung should indeed provide a changelog for each update!

 

Should I take my notebook back(is it even possible), when my mousepad is squeaking?

I already swaped my hdd with my ssd and its the 6th day, I am owning it..

 

New Settings app as well. V. 2.2.0.5

Nothing in terms of drivers yet...

 

I finally got this update working. first I boot in safe mode with network capabilities then I downloaded the AMD beta drivers 13.11 and disable the AMD screen controller in device manager. Afterwards it boot normally but the screen wasnt sharp enough. So I went to Control Panel>Screen>Change size of all elements and put it back to 100%. Then I realized the function keys controlling brightness didnt work so I manually installed the Graphic Controllers for 64bit using the SW update tool. (you have to open it and click in the lower left corner "search model" and choose windows 8 and there you can find a list with all the drivers) hope this helps. Im not sure if the update was worth enough to loose 1 day of work looking for a fix. Cheers

CazSol