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

I seem to be getting really bad lag with COD Ghosts, anyone play the same game? Using the 13.11 B1 driver

 

Hello
Im playing COD GHOSTS with no lag with your same driver at high settings.
What settings are you using?

 

Hi everyone,

Just got the Ativ Book 8 with the 8870M graphic card. What driver do you recommend on using? If I use an non-samsung driver will the switchable graphics work? if not how can I "manually" switch which video card is being used? thanks

 

The AMD Beta drivers work fine. There were also some custom drivers around, but they tend to break brightness adjustment functionality. I don't actually believe there's any way at all to manually switch which card is being used, even if the automatic switcher breaks down.

 

I'm using the default optimal video settings. Single player seems to work fine, but multiplayer is the issue

 

Guys, I cannot install any newer driver than 13.11 beta 1, are you experiencing the same problem? I have also tried, beta 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.2, 9.4 and nothing. The installation process actually going trough, but the Radeon GPU won't work and Catalyst Control Centrer --> Information --> Hardware cannot read the GPU specifications either.
Than I tried to install the newest intel driver too and I got this massage;



Are they kidding with me? Is this problem only under Windows 8.1 exist? With Windows 8, I have never experienced any similar and I always could install the most recent from Intel and AMD too...

 

AMD 13.11 Beta 9.4 is out! Anyone jumping on this?

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/amd_catalyst_13.11_mobility_betav9.4.exe

 

None other than Beta 1 work with our laptops - can't see the 9.4 being any different, let me know though!

 

I'm currently using drivers from Windows Update only, which so far has been working surprisingly well.

Just gotten an updated AMD driver from Windows update earlier today which has a version 13.152.1.2300.

Don't think I'll be jumping into the new beta drivers since my current configuration is much more stable, kind of had enough of the testing and troubleshooting broken recorder syndrome...

 

care to share how did you install those? and also after installing those how do you switch between using Intel graphics and HD RADEON graphics? please help

 

I seriously don't know what to do about the Wireless. It works ok with the Microsoft driver, but it just keeps installing the Intel driver from nowhere. I already blocked the automatic device updates, I already uninstalled the Intel drivers thousands of times and it just keeps installing and messing with my sanity.

What else can I do?

 

Hello everyone,

Is there a way to find out which graphic card is being used? I'm currently on samsung drivers but I suspect that only Intel GPU is being used. I searched the web and found out about GPU-Z but when I start the program this shows up

Could anyone please help?

 

For once, I do like mondays. My new series 7 chronos is on its way to arrive monday. My other one broke, not under warranty, and was far too expensive to be fixed, more expensive than the laptop itself. Because the laptop's price in my country with my keyboard layout got up to 1600 euro I could not afford it. I waited for the Gigabyte p35k because it was about 500 euros cheaper, a bit faster but not great for CAD and far inferior looks, compactness and build quality. Suddenly, thursday the chronos reappeared on the web and prices dropped. So I bought one . It's on its way now. I'm sorry I didn't contribute at all lately, not being able to have this laptop again was not a fun thought, and you guys making me jelly on this thread wouldn't help at all .

I'll be testing the newest drivers Shinji_U . And when I have finished a few projects for college in a week or two I'll try win 8.1.

 

Have you tried the brand new intel driver i posted previously? So far for the first time since getting this laptop 4 months ago I haven't had a disconnection issue.

 

Hey Guys, I just bought a new Ativ Book 8 (870Z5E-X02PT) it's the one with the 8870, no touch screen. I only update de SW Update once. Never downloaded anything of anykind to this computer about updates or driver's. I'm quite dumb at this, I just wan't a nice computer that runs smooth. The only thing's that I updated are from Windows Update (like 80 small updates required) I don´t have anything from SW update installed and I don't even know what's the BIOS for..

I'm expecting you guys help me with this, it's my new computer and I just wan't to get it ready for document's transfer's and my stuff back from my old pc.

Thanks

BTW - in my windows score i get 6.3 - 7.1 - 6.9 - 6.9 - 6.4. is this normal values? I see in other forum of my county same computer with 7.8 - 7.8 - 6.9 - 6.9 - 5.9.. I alredy put everything in MAX PERFORMANCE but still this thing does not do better than that..

BTW 2.0 - baterry life, i get about 6 hour's max in office, light program's, internet. Most of the time without even toutching in the computer, just reading stuff. Is it normal?

 

I just reformat and install fresh Windows 8.0, followed by upgrading to 8.1 and then just update everything there is on Windows Update. Nothing else. I only installed the Samsung SWUpdate, nothing else from Samsung. As for the graphics switching, it can be configured from the Windows power plan, I set the switchable dynamic graphics global settings to force power mode under battery and maximize performance on plugged in.

 

Have you tried the latest 16.6.0 drivers from Intel?

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software — Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software IT Administrator Links

 

Found another trick to overcome the graphics switching issue...

With Samsung Settings installed and Silent mode set to off. Toggle Fn+F11 two times to switch GPU.

Reproduced this to two other of the Ativ 8 in my store and so far, it seems to be working as intended to overcome the graphics switching bug...

Let me know if it works for you guys. =)

 

Hey, these days I noticed that my laptop feels a bit more laggy than usual, and also while gaming the performance seems to have dropped a little. I used to get an FPS rate of about 160 where I usually play (CS:Source) but these days I see it dropping to 80-60, sometimes 40. The machine doesn't feel hot, or at least it doesn't seem to be hotter than usual.. How can I perform a check to see what's wrong with it?

If you remember, a while ago I removed the heatsink to clean it and i put it back without changing the thermal compound. Could this have affected anything and thus reduce the performance? I don't want to find out that I've ruined some components.. sigh

(btw I'm waiting for a pack of thermal compound to be delivered, so it will be replaced ASAP)

 

Hi Guys, I was wondering about the max HDMI output resolution for this laptop. I just got a Catleap Q271 display and while I can get the vga to output 2560x1440, the text is a little 'ghosty' due to the (i'm guessing) analogue nature of the connection. With HDMI i'm hitting a 1920x1080 limit. Has anyone managed to get a higher resolution over HDMI? I believe Nvidia mobile laptops can surpass 1080 but am i right in saying the HDMI output on the chronos 7 is limited by the HD4000 integrated gfx? anyone know of any hacks to increase the res on that?

Games sure do look good in 2560x1440!

Edit: Nevermind, I figured out how to do it: follow the instruction in this thread and reboot the machine. the resolution will then be available in the normal windows change resolution dialog: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1763021/high-resolution-monitors-2560x1440-intel-4000.html#.

edit 2: I also have just realised that the laptop can power 2 x 2560x1440 external displays (One over HDMI and one over VGA). sweet little laptop

 

Guys,

Every time I log-in into Windows 8, I get a blacksreen for 2 seconds.

Is there a fix

 

There is a significant risk that the cooling system efficiency is impaired because there will be a small air gap due to putting back the heat sink with the old paste.

You can use HWiNFO to see if the CPU is throttling because it is getting too hot. I don't know if there is a similar utility for the GPU which I hope will also auto-throttle at high temperatures.

John

 

can anyone help me? I am starting to have some erro's, and my disc is almost all the time 100% in use..

 

Is anyone running the latest version of Logitech Setpoint with 8.1 on their 780Z5E (or similar)? With Setpoint running, the back and forward buttons show a 10 second delay. Removing Setpoint solves the problem but at the expense of not having button assignments for my Performance MX mouse.

 

Hi, I am new to the forums.

I am located in the United States and was wondering if it is possible to get this laptop in the US with 16GB of memory? Or is it possible to upgrade it to 16GB?

Thanks.

EDIT: referring to the 15-inch size

 

Was wondering, has anyone tried running this laptop with the LCD closed hooked up to a external monitor and keyboard? Any heat issues?

Thinking of buying this to replace a desktop setup that I can bring around.

 

If you are getting errors then go to the HDD manufacturer's website and look for a diagnostics utility that will check the drive's health. Download and run it. Also make sure that you have everything important backed up onto another drive. Errors can be a warning of impending death.

You can also look in Task Manager which shows disk usage for the open programs. However, low level system access often doesn't show up.

John

 

Hi,

I also have that annoying switching bug where the system obviously switches back to the integrated GPU in games. Two to name are WoT and War Thunder.

In WoT, the game starts up in high perfomance mode, but when I switch screens to eg. the research tree or crew list and return to the garage, everything is just sluggish, in particular the mouse cursor. During battles, the game normally starts up with only 5-15fps while it can easily do 50fps via the AMD GPU, even if everything ran smoothly in the garage just seconds ago. The trick I normally use is go back to desktop, find the power taskbar icon and change power plans to High Performance and then back to Samsung optimized (where I set everything to max GPU performance). Usually, this works more or less, though sometimes the fps rates suddenly drop even in battles, which can be very annoying, as I have to repeat the above procedure to be able to fight at all, hoping not to be seen by the enemy in the meantime.

War Thunder, on the other hand, initially does not care about the AMD GPU at all until I do the same thing after the launcher, and right before login, but falls back to the integrated GPU whenever the game switches screens before a flight. I can definitely rule out any heat problems or the like, and it worked perfectly unter Windows 8. Currently, I'm using the driver packages Samsung shipped, namely the 13.152.0.0 WHQL AMD driver and the accompanying Intel one from SWUpdate (10.18.10.3304), and in theory switchable graphics seem ok.

So, well, I also thought about AutoHotKeys and wrote a script to automate the above steps, but it does not seem to work: I can successfully switch power plans by pressing CTRL+ALT+P, but unlike the desktop | power icon | right click | switch | switch back thing, fps does not go up again when ingame, though brightness changes during the procedure (set it to different levels for each profile to check if profiles get switched). This is the script I use:

^!p::
; switch to power saving mode
RunWait, CMD.EXE /c "powercfg.exe /s a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a",,Hide
; switch to max power mode
RunWait, CMD.EXE /c "powercfg.exe /s 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c",,Hide
Sleep 1000
; switch to Samsung optimized mode
RunWait, CMD.EXE /c "powercfg.exe /s 69685541-ba54-44e8-b145-f9e9b42ad3f3",,Hide
return

I even added a 1 sec delay to help the system to get accustomed to the new settings, but to no avail. Odd. It makes no difference if I comment out the Max Power thing or switch to a different profile instead. The manual process (usually) works.

Considering the FN+F11 solution, this also does not work for me (latest Settings version, 2.2.0.5, silent mode set to off), regardless if I check or uncheck the "brightness control via Fn keys' checkbox or not.

Btw, I don't recall any recent BIOS updates. Current BIOS is P03ADH, but I think I installed that before Windows 8.1.

Any help greatly appreciated, I'm finally out of solutions.
-- Ch.

NB. Ativ 8 model is np870z5e-x04de.

NNB. SWUpdate just came up with an updated touchpad driver. Don't use the touchpad much, but possibly the missing options are back again? Lets see....

 

Seems to do the trick for me,that FN+f11 thing ,also i'm using intel drivers version 9.17.10.2963.I've read good things about this version.
Especially issues related to enduro,although i'm not sure does 8870m has an enduro

 

I just got an update for the touchpad driver for my ATIV Book 8. Now I can't reverse two-finger scroll, any tips? Thanks!

 

Please do not cross-post.

Then see my reply here.

John

 

As usual - the newer touchpad drivers that came out yesterday have added reverse scrolling with no option to disable it.

 

I'm playing WoT as well, currently using the Fn+F11 to solve the graphics switching when that fails, I just unplug and replug the power connector which works.

Somehow along the way, one of the BIOS revision broke the Enduro switching, which causes the machine to power down to the Intel graphics rather than the AMD GPU even though the user has specified it in the CCC profile or Windows power plan. Proof of concept that graphics switching issue is caused by power source which is solved when you switch power source whether be it via Windows power plan, Fn+F11, autohotkey script or reconnecting the power connector. Neither of them worked 100% all the time, which drills down further to the way BIOS is detecting the power source.

 

For those having issues with the touchpad, try the download link I've included below. I've been using this driver with great results, far better than the Samsung ones.

Elantech Touchpad v11.13.3.3

 

See the link in my post above yours.

It takes you to here.

John

 

Uninstall IntelliMemory, mine did that too...

 

Hey guys, could anyone have a look at their series 7/ativ book 8 idle's temps, and post them? I'm ranging around 40-42 °C... Is it good??

So during gaming the temps were ranging around 70-70 (CPU and GPU) but only with my new massive notebook cooler!!! I'm thinking I didn't put the new thermal compound properly.. I tried to evenly spread it on top of the CPU, GPU etc and then I placed the heatsink on top, the latter didn't have anything on it, it was shiny and clean. Did the compound stick on both surfaces? I found it really hard to understand how to spread the compound... Now I'm really worried about the temps, it seems like the cooler I bought was a waste of money since the temps are (in my opinion) way too high... How can I fix this? I don't want to take the back and the heatsink off again, unless I know exactly how to place this bloody compound (yeah I know, I should have read about it before, but I didn't realiZe the units were going to be that small on a laptop. It confused me a bit)


edit: the laptop has now been idle for a while (15 minutes) with the cooling pad OFF, and the temps are on 48-49 °C. I'm afraid I will have to open it again as soon as possible and see how to apply this cursed thermal paste -.-

 

Seems ike AMD dropped switchable graphics support and deleted all previous driver downloads which did support. Thanks to LeekM's drivers it shoud work. Testing 13.11 beta 9.4 now

 

Thanks for your answer! I also assume that the root cause is hidden somewhere deeper than the drivers themselves. So then we will have to wait for another BIOS update...hope that Samsung fixes that thing soon. In the meantime, I reinstalled the older Settings app from SWUpdate (2.0.65) and will check if the FN+F11 or plugging tricks work with that version, I used a 2.2.0.5 version from a different model until now (that worked ok and has some additional options). If I'm right, pressing FN+11 switches the silent mode to 'auto' and then to 'off' again? And of course, you're right: sometimes even the manual process fails. Odd thing is the system still uses the AMD GPU somehow, as it gets warm and the fan makes noticable noise, but fps rates definitely hint at the HD 4000 being used. Yesterday, WoT seemed more stable than it used to be, having switched the silent mode option to and fro during the day, but that could also be wishful thinking, as battles still start at low fps nearly every time. Nonetheless, got my 19th Tank Ace (+ Kolobanov medal) some days ago, so despite that annoying bug, I still get around somehow

-- Ch.

 

I see that Windows Update is offering updated drivers (dated November 23) for the AMD HD8800M series of cards. I am inclined to let this pass and stay with those provided by Samsung so as to ensure compatibility. Has anyone else experience with these WU drivers?

 

I installed it and got a black screen with only a mouse. Rebooted (forcefully ) and it was working again but lost switchable graphics or something like that, so I reinstalled 13.11b1. So I would definitely skip them, but may be just my experience. In all fairness, I didn't even uninstall the old driver or anything like that, just let windows update run.

 

Thanks - hiding the update now. This once again reinforces my resolve to never install drivers from Windows Update.

 

Hi pranktank, congrats on the new laptop

Thanks for posting this. Not gaming myself, and being aware of the switching issues of the Sandy Bridge models, I never bothered updating the old Samsung-provided drivers on my NP700Z3A; and so I wasn't aware of LeeKM's drivers.

But the discussion here and your post made me look into it. The AMD_Catalyst_13.11_Mobility_BetaV9.4_SG_Fix driver works perfectly on my old machine -- that's even on 8.1, although I don't use that yet as my daily driver.

 

What drivers are you talking about please ?

 

Could you maybe send me the 13.11 beta 1 driver package please? I can't find any working amd driver download except for the ones that don't support switchable graphics. No luck with leekM's drivers either.

 

I didn't know about them either, I just Googled LeeKM.

Oops, we posted almost at the same time. See my (positive) results with the latest LeeKM driver described here. That's on an older model -- but one that's usually more stubborn with the switching.

 

Thank you. I'm really happy with it. The image retetion on this screen is much more subtle then it was on my previous one.

Whoops I missed a few posts here. I was indeed trying these drivers: AMD Catalyst 13.11 Mobility BetaV9.4 SG. Fix Driver - Guru3D.com Forums . LeekM is an active member on NBR too who made the enduro fix drivers.

I did exactly what LeekM's instructions are, to no avail. I can't get switchable graphics working because the drivers don't install properly. I'm still on windows 8.

Dannemand, on LeekM's 13.11 9.4 SG fix drivers, can you select "switchable graphics" when you right click on desktop?

 

Yes, I can choose Switchable graphics -- and it works. The AMD stays dormant, then kicks in when I start a game or other app designated High Performance -- as verified in HWiNFO64.

I started out uninstalling all AMD drivers (using Catalyst Uninstaller) so that Win 8.1 reverted to its built-in drivers (in my case HD3000 driver version 9.17.10.3347, AMD Radeon HD 7400M Series driver). Then reboot and disable Driver Signature Enforcement. Then installed the LeeKM BetaV9.4_SG_Fix driver.

Since I don't game, I have no frame of reference regarding performance etc. But there is no doubt it works as intended.

Previously on these old models, we always had to install a Samsung-provided combo package, which contained both the AMD and the Intel driver with the switcheroo hack. AMD provided drivers never switched properly when installed independently.

 

Hey Prank, glad that you've gotten yourself a new laptop.

Have you tried the Samsung SWUpdate drivers? I have not tested the 13.11 Beta 1 yet. Still a little reluctant to change what is working now. Haha! xD

 

By the way, are we able to enable back the "Driver Signature Enforcement" after installing LeeKM drivers? I don't feel that safe leaving the enforcement disabled... Hmmm