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

As I have noted in another thread, the specs for the UK 880Z5G may not be typical of what will be offered in other markets.

If the thermal design of the chassis is capable of accommodating higher powered components then I'm sure they will be offered in some markets. The situation should become clearer at CES 2014, which is less than a month away.

John

 

Just did an optional windows 8.1 update for the AMD driver and it blanked my screen. Reboots to a blank screen. How do I firstly boot up in safe mode and roll back the driver?

What's that expression? If it aint broke then don't fix it.

How to wreck my night

 

Update ......
Ok I'm back. I thought I'd start in safe mode and roll back the driver but the old F8/F5 doesn't work. Panic Panic. I googled safe mode on another computer and someone suggested hitting the spacebar on bootup which worked. Went into device manager and I was not surprised to see the yellow exclamation mark next to the AMD driver. I hit roll back driver and rebooted but while it booted the yellow mark was still there. So loaded the graphics driver from SW updates and that did the trick.

What have I learned? Don't load Windows 8.1 optional updates

 

Quick question:

I remember a few pages back, migration from HDD to SSD should work without a problem using Samsung's Data Migration tool. Has anybody done it after updating to Win8.1, or should I do it while on Win8?
I know that I will lose the recovery partitions, but I will not touch the original HDD anyway.

I just got the PC today and still didn't have time to even turn it on, but I want to do the HDD swap ASAP.
Thanks to everybody for all the useful info in these pages!

 

I would personally do the migration before Windows 8.1.

Then, if 8.1 causes problems ( this thread suggests it might break Recovery) you still have Win 8 on the original HDD.

John

 

Hello everyone,

I just got my Ativ Book 8 model NP880Z5E-X01NL.

I am very disappointed however with the screen quality. It seems to be grainy when displaying white or another light color, with thin gray vertical 'lines' being visible on the screen. At first I thought I forgot to remove a protective plastic film or something, that is how it looks. But unfortunately, it is just the screen quality.
Even my 5 year old Dell Studio 15 with TN-panel looks much nicer and brighter.

Is this normal? Or is my screen just defective/ of poor quality? I am thinking of sending it back for a replacement or a refund.
I have read some other reports of grainyness, but not that many, so I don't know what the deal is.


Thank you for your advice on the matter! I have been reading the thread with great interest.

 

Thank you John, I was not aware of this problem. I will definitely migrate on Win8.
I'll let you know when I have the while thing up and running.

I have seen the touchscreen model (880) at my local MediaMarkt and the screen was looking very bright and flawless (even with full white color background). However, you might have a different definition of what is "very bright" and "flawless", but I highly doubt a 5 year old Dell would have a 250nits screen. I truly beleive you might have a defective screen....

 

What is the panel model ( the moninfo program will tell you).

Graininess can be caused by not using the display at its natural resolution (1920 x 1080).

Low brightness can be caused by the ambient light sensor. You should be able to disable this in Settings (Fn+F1).

John

 

I already did that. Didn't change anything for me.

 

The wifi card on the Ativ book 8 is the Centrino N6235 I believe. Numerous user reports say that this wifi card is defective. Bottom line, the entire Centrino line is crap.

I would suggest you to upgrade it to the AC 7260. It is much better and it Intel's newest franchise. You will be able to get it around 20 - 30 dollars depending on the source.

 

Hi everyone!
I'm planning on getting the 870z5e this week, and I immediately want to upgrade the HD to an SSD and put in another 8 gb of ram.
The SSD is an easy choice, Samsung 840 pro basic 256 GB, this should be no problem
The ram, however, I am a little unsure of which to chose from. I've nailed it down to Kingston, 8 GB, 1600MHz.
Now, which one of those two is the right one for me?

8GB Module - DDR3 1600MHz
Part Number: KVR16S11/8
Specs: DDR3, 1600MHz, Non-ECC, CL11, 1.5V, Unbuffered, SODIMM, 204-pin,

8GB Module - DDR3L 1600MHz
Part Number: KVR16LS11/8
Specs: DDR3L, 1600MHz, Non-ECC, CL11, 1.35V, Unbuffered, SODIMM, 204-pin,

Any help is greatly appreciated, have a nice one!

 

The basic problem with the 6235 was the driver, not the hardware, and Intel were slow to fix the problems but I've found that the drivers issued in the last few months have progressively improved the 6235's performance. Get the latest direct from Intel. An AC WiFi card will bring further benefits if used in conjunction with an AC router.

First, make sure your computer is running nicely before tinkering with the hardware and make a backup of the HDD using Samsung Recovery Solution (which you can also use for the drive copying).

Regarding the RAM, the difference is the voltage. In theory, a notebook that does not support 1.35V RAM will run it at 1.5V (but Samsung broke 1.35V RAM support in a recent BIOS update for my NP900X4C). I would suggest you wait to get the computer before ordering the RAM. You can then check the voltage of the existing RAM and order the same.

John

 

Hi John, thanks for your quick response!
I will then hold off on ordering the ram until I confirm the voltage used. Cpu-z should do that job just fine.
I was planing on starting from a clean Win8.1 installation on the SSD anyways, so I plan on keeping the original Harddisk in its original state, so I still have access to recovery partitions etc.

Any other recommendations or stuff I would have to pay attention to?

Thanks, David.

 

This is the first post from my brand new SSD powered 870!!!

Please, anyone considering buying this laptop, do yourself a favor and buy an SSD. After the installation of the 500Gb EVO the laptop is a rocket and absolutely silent.

First, as John correctly stated above, set-up your computer using the factory drive, uninstall tons of bloatware, and once you make sure everything is working fine (so that you don't have to make a return), then you can begin the SSD installation.

Personally, once I setup the PC the way I liked it with the built in HDD, I then used Samsung's Data Migration tool to clone HDD to SSD.
The process took in total 15 minutes. Surprisingly, everything (!!! including recovery partitions !!!) were transferred to the SSD (cudos to Samsung!) and once I installed the SSD everything worked flawlessly, like no disk was swapped, only 1000 times faster
The only painful part was removing the bottom cover, which is something that needs a lot of care. Make sure you have an old credit card, otherwise I think it's impossible to remove it.

Concerning the laptop itself, I was unlucky enough to have screen with a bit of extra light bleeding in the corners, but I don't mind asking for a replacement, because it's not that annoying (unless at max brightness and black background) and the screen is simply amazing (colors, brightness, gamut, viewing angles, it's truly a GREAT screen).
Wireless works flawlessly for me with good range and everything.
I didn't have time to test graphics yet (gaming) but I will first upgrade to Win 8.1, get the official 13.9 from SW update and then see what do I get.
One of the most pleasant surprises of this machines was also the performance of the speakers! Wow! I didn't expect a laptop could punch out that much noise!
Great machine overall and I'm curious to see how the AMD performs in games and in CAD.

 

I would also recommend holding back on the Windows 8.1 upgrade until after installing the SSD so there is always the Win 8 HDD to fall back on.

8.1 has been known to break things (including side-effects such as reduced battery run time) although some people have either got it working properly or got used to it.

John

 

Thank you for your reply guys.

I checked and I am running the native resolution. Also, I turned off adaptive brightness, and the brightness is alright now, but the grainyness and vertical pattern remain.

This is the info I am getting from the moninfo:


Monitor
Windows description...... Generic PnP Monitor
Manufacturer............. AUO
Plug and Play ID......... AUO9003
Serial number............ 8
Manufacture date......... 2012, ISO week 0
Filter driver............ None
-------------------------
EDID revision............ 1.4
Input signal type........ Digital (DisplayPort)
Color bit depth.......... 6 bits per primary color
Color encoding formats... RGB 4:4:4, YCrCb 4:4:4
Screen size.............. 340 x 190 mm (15,3 in)
Power management......... Active off/sleep
Extension blocs.......... None
-------------------------
DDC/CI................... n/a

Color characteristics
Default color space...... sRGB
Display gamma............ 3,55
Red chromaticity......... Rx 0,625 - Ry 0,340
Green chromaticity....... Gx 0,285 - Gy 0,605
Blue chromaticity........ Bx 0,148 - By 0,063
White point (default).... Wx 0,281 - Wy 0,309
Additional descriptors... None

Timing characteristics
Horizontal scan range.... 134-134kHz
Vertical scan range...... 60-60Hz
Video bandwidth.......... 150MHz
CVT standard............. Not supported
GTF standard............. Supported
Additional descriptors... None
Preferred timing......... Yes
Native/preferred timing.. 1920x1080p at 60Hz (16:9)
Modeline............... "1920x1080" 141,400 1920 1968 2068 2112 1080 1088 1102 1112 -hsync -vsync

Standard timings supported

Report information
Date generated........... 15/12/2013
Software revision........ 2.70.0.989
Data source.............. Registry-Active
Operating system......... 6.2.9200.2

 

Are you able to F4 boot your Recovery from the cloned SSD?

We know that 3rd party cloning and image backup tools generally lose that F4 link, but I would expect Samsung's own Migration tool to know about Samsung Recovery Solution. But it would be great if you can confirm.

 

Hi everybody,

I'm a newbie NP870Z5E user but I need to say that this laptop disappointed me in several ways. I know, I shouldn't expect great performance with HDD but still dedicated GPU must make a difference.

first of all today I have checked same device in a store and I was kind a surprised because "Windows Experience Index" is higher than mine

here are the scores from store device

CPU -------------------7,8
RAM -------------------7,8
Graphics -------------7,4
Game Graphics ----7,4
Harddisk -------------5,9

and these are mine

CPU -------------------7,8
RAM -------------------7,8
Graphics -------------6,8
Game Graphics ----6,8
Harddisk -------------5,9

I have checked INTEL and AMD drivers and all of them were identical and detailed reports were same as well.

At the beginning I just blamed Windows 8 and tried to downgrade win7 but I'm failed with different errors. First I couldn't create a bootable USB drive with "Windows 7 USB - DVD Tool" because bootsvc.exe couldn't run at the end of process. I have made a quick research for the solution. As they it happens platform mismatch (x86/64bit) but I'm using 64 bit windows 8 and windows 7 is ultimate 64bit as well. Then I prepared my USB drive manually and copy all ISO content to USB.

I followed these instructions for BIOS settings
Windows 7 Downgrade Guide | SAMSUNG

It was ok till I try to select my partition for new windows 7. It didn't allow me to install and this error popped up : "windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style." I followed same steps for both "CSM OS" and "UEFI and CSM OS" but none of them let me to select the partition.

I'm about to freak out and I need to fix this.

 

I have almost identical performance rating on my not upgraded so far machine (NP870Z5E with 8870 video):
CPU -------------------7,8
RAM -------------------7,8
Graphics -------------6,9
Game Graphics ----6,9
Harddisk -------------5,9

I guess the video ratings fluctuate with driver and windows version. However it is HDD low score that I am most concerned with and will definitely upgrade to SSD soon

 

Hi longliveboy, welcome to NBR.

Indeed, the HDD is the bottleneck in this laptop, that's why so many owners replace it with an SSD. The opening post of this thread contains guides for this procedure as well as for clean install.

In your case, the Win7 downgrade guide you followed is severely flawed. In fact, by refusing to continue, Win7 Setup saved you from destroying Recovery on your disk -- which is impossible to re-create once it is lost.

Your model is supported with drivers for Win7, and several members have gone that route, though most are staying with Win8. Many have added 3rd party Start Menu products and use it the same way they used Win7 (I never see the Metro Start Screen myself).

But due to UEFI and GPT, downgrading to Win7 on any Win8 laptop is far more involved than just re(installing) Win7 on an old machines. That's true of any Win8 laptop, not just Samsung.

I highly recommend you read This post which describes the considerations before downgrading. If you want to proceed, you should take the following steps:

1) Change your BIOS settings back to default (important): OS Mode Selection=UEFI OS, SecureBoot=enabled. Save and cold boot after this change (power off/on).

2) F4 boot your Recovery (IF you still can) and create a Bootable Factory Image Backup (WHILE you still can). You need this if you want to get back to Win8 someday. Use the first two steps in this post; the remaining steps are for cloning to a new SSD if you ever decide to do that.

3) Follow the exact steps in this Win7 install guide, starting with the steps for converting your disk to MBR before the actual installation.

I am sure you will come to like this computer in the end. I don't have this model myself, but most members here seem to really enjoy it

 

Unfortunately, the Migration Tools clone the HDD layout with all recovery partitions, BUT the F4 link is broken :-(
It seems the best way to make an SSD swap is summarized in the following steps:
1. Setup PC with HDD, update, make tests to see everything works as advertised.
2. Reboot, press F2 and make a bootable USB (just as a backup for future use)
3. Boot to Win, clone HDD to SSD
4. Replace HDD with SSD.

It is the fastest way I guess to see a manifold increase in the system performance! Worked flawlessly for me!

You are right about the HDD. I had the same values as you do, but after the Samsung SSD installation it changed to:

CPU -------------------7,8
RAM -------------------7,8
Graphics -------------6,9
Game Graphics ----6,9
Harddisk -------------8,2

Concerning the GPU performance I was worried about the 6.9, so I installed the 13.9 WHQL drivers (in Win8) and then ran a 3dmark11 test.
Result: 3411 P
I am a very happy man
I might try 13.10 bet later...
Hopefully Samsung will be wise enough to install a 760 or higher in the Haswell update, or the new model will be a downgrade for sure.

initially I was thinking of upgrading to Win8.1, but it seems battery life is in general affected (not Samsung specific) as I saw a significant decrease in my UX32VD after 8.1 update. Maybe it's random, but there seems to be a pattern with Win 8.1 and battery...

 

Thank you for testing and confirming that. So even Samsung isn't aware of its own Recovery software -- no wonder other cloning/imaging software vendors aren't either.

And yes, the proven way to clone is to use Recovery (F4, not F2) either with its Disk Copy feature (which requires all partitions to fit on the new SSD) or the Bootable Factory Image Backup feature (which requires a 32GB USB stick). The latter can be used to re-image the SSD (instead of cloning) including working Recovery and Windows, and is the approach I recommend in this guide (the same that's copied on the opening post).

Thanks again for confirming about Samsung Data Migration.

 

Thank You.

I was thinking about getting a AC7260 from here(german page sorry).

As far as I know there are different kinds of AC7260 and I am not sure if the one from the link has bluetooth of not(I use bt everyday). Its not easy to get an overview about all AC7260 cards which intel is offering.

 

At present it seems that the model offered in UK is on par with the other markets - i.e. it is 8870M.

And if the new model pops up at CES how long till it is actually mass produced and available? 2 3 month?

 

Anyone willing to sell his laptop?

 

does someone know which driver performs better? (AMD GPU 8870m - 770z5e)

a.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Graphics Adapter WDDM1.3 - AMD Radeon HD 8800M Series
(windows-offered driver, 12.12.2013)

b.
Newest working beta driver (13.11 beta 1)
(that one @ page1)

c. you call!

 

This 8.1 driver delay from Samsung is unacceptable and outrageous, but I was wondering... Is any Samsung laptop actually shipped stock with w8.1?
Because at this point I have to assume that Samsung didn't enter at all the w8.1 league.

 

The latest Ativ Book 9 Plus models (Haswell) ship with 8.1. All others are still Win8. To the best of my knowledge.

I share your disappointment in how poorly the 8.1 has gone for Samsung owners. But as elaborated in this post in the Win 8.1 sticky, I think there is shared responsibility with Microsoft for this failure.

 

So regarding the newest wave of hybrid-style drives, someone earlier in the thread mentioned the Western Digital Black² Dual Drive, but there were some concerns about whether it would fit in this laptop due to it being a 9.5mm device. I've got the NP780Z5E-S01UB variant, which shipped with a Samsung Spinpoint ST1000LM024 drive, which is also marketed as a 9.5mm drive. I've measured the factory drive from my Chronos, and (according to my ruler, so not the most precise thing in the world) it comes in at a hair over 9mm. In other words, the WD Dual Drive should fit just fine.

As a side note, I've got a friend who tests hardware for different manufacturers, and he indicated that this Dual Drive isn't quite like the traditional SSHDs. It is literally a 128GB SD and 1TB hard disk in a single unit. When you install it, the BIOS only sees the SSD. Then after installing the OS you install the WD utilities which then makes the 1TB drive visible/available to the OS, and from there on out it behaves like two separate disks. There is no caching or storage tiering going on behind the scenes to improve access to everything, it's basically a device designed for people (like us Chronos owners) who only have a single drive bay but want an SSD for OS and a few apps while still having large storage for data. It seems like a good solution, except that it's nearly the same price as a 500GB SSD, which would probably cover 90% of the use cases that they have for the Dual Drive design. I can't help believe that a system like Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT) that does automatic tiering between the drives would make for a much better solution.

 

In all fairness, Samsung is a huge company. The people who write the migration software for their SSDs are in an entirely different division from the people who design their computers or write software for them.

 

LeekM's 13.12 sg fix driver confirmed working perfectly as they should on windows 8! : AMD Catalyst 13.12 Mobility (Revision 13.25) Switchable Graphics Fix Driver - Guru3D.com Forums

Are you on windows 8 or 8.1?

If you're on 8 I'd choose 13.10 beta 1 or LeekM's 13.12 sg fix driver (requires a little more work to install, I havent tested performance yet.

 

Hey all, I have the NP780Z5E-S01UB model and I looking to see who has installed an ssd on the same model. And also what ssd would you guys recommend for this model?

 

I installed a Samsung 840 EVO @ 500Gb.
After SSD installation it has become the fastest laptop I ever used.

You can find excellent how-to tutorials back on the first page.

Before SSD installation make sure you test the computer with its HDD.
Check screen, wireless, graphics, keyboard, pretty much everything you can to make sure everything is OK and you don't have to send it back for a repair/replacement.

After you confirm everything is OK, you can uninstall bloatware, install Win updates (but NOT Win8.1) and config the whole thing to your liking. (This process also gives you a bit more time for testing).

At this point it is a good idea to make a bootable USB stick (hit F4 during boot and select the corresponding option), so that in the future you have a means of restoring the PC to its original state.

After this step - and if you are lazy like me - you can boot to Win and use Samsung's Data Migration Tools (they come bundled with the SSD) and clone your -already setup to your liking- HDD to your SSD. This process takes around 15 minutes.

Once you are done cloning, you can swap your HDD with your SSD. You need to do nothing else and it will work like a charm. HOWEVER, you will lose the ability to boot to the recovery part (F4) that's why if you want to have this functionality in the future you should use your bootalbe USB stick and format your SSD with it.

The most tricky part of the whole process is probably the removal of the laptop's bottom cover.
Make sure you have an expired credit card or similar tool to release the plastic hinges. A Youtube search will pop up some videos that briefly show how to do this. It needs patience and care so that you do not crack the cover.
The whole effort though is truly worth it! After SSD the PC is really lighting fast!

 

Can anyone tell me anything about this screen, and wether or not it might be more susceptible to grainyness?

I was also wondering it might be the antireflective coating that Samsung uses on the screens, causing a grainy appearance in light backgrounds. But I would assume then all screens would suffer from this. Or would they apply different types of coatings with different panels?

I was in a store recently, and looking at a high-end 13 inch Samsung with touch screen (can't remember which model), and it had the same kind of grainyness that my Ativ book 8 was suffering from. Laptops from other manufacturers did not have this grainyness.


I just returned my Ativ Book 8 for a replacement, but I am afraid that the next one they give me might suffer from the same problem...

 

thx pranktank, but iam on win 8.1

 

Thanks a lot for the your detailed response! I'm considering the Samsung 840 EVO @ 1TB. My only uncertainty is that the stock storage type is a SATA II while the 840 EVO is SATA III, will this in anyway cause any problems or incompatibilities? Sorry for the noobish question, this will be my first time installing an ssd and I'm trying to research as much as possible so that I don't end up destroying the laptop. So I guess my question is that if this specific model(NP780Z5E-S01UB) is compatible with a SATA III SSD?

Also, do you game a lot on your laptop? If so, has the SSD reduced the overall fan noise and/or the overheating of the laptop? I ask because I've had this laptop for almost close to a year (completely stock), and I've noticed that the top part of the keyboard can get really hot and the fan can get really loud when I'm gaming.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

In that case I recommend the ones from SW update.

 

anyone has a good screen clibration(color profile) for np880z5e???

 

Your motherboard supports SATA III, so no problem with the SSD. My stock HDD was also SATA II (1 TB Samsung HDD), the 840 EVO is SATA III and I had no problem at all (everything worked without the need of any intervention).
The 780Z5E should have no problem whatsoever with the SSD upgrade.

Concerning the second part of your question, unfortunately the SSD will change nothing on this.
SSD will hugely improve loading/boot times, but gaming is CPU / GPU and memory related, so temperatures and fan noise will remain the same. However, since you are already using the laptop for a year, your SSD upgrade will give you a chance to see if the two fans are dusty, so that you might clean them. In this case (if they are dusty) and you clean them, you will most probably see an imrpovement in heat/noise.
I would also hihgly recommend to upgrade the AMD drivers at least to version 13.9 (official, see first post), or 13.10 (see pranktank's recommendations). The stock ones are terrible.

 

I highly recommend NOT using Samsung's Data Migration Tools or other disk imaging software to clone your hard disk to an SSD. Instead, boot into the recovery using F4 and use the clone utility included there. It will properly clone the disk and leave the recovery partitions intact, as well as maintain the ability to use the F4 boot process. Just be sure that if you are going to a smaller SSD than 1TB that you resize the C: partition in Windows before cloning so that it is smaller than your target SSD.

When I first installed my SSD I used a clone tool as suggested instead of the F4 method, and not only would recovery not work but I found some of the software updates would not install properly. After a botched upgrade to Windows 8.1 I had to rebuild from the recovery image (fortunately I saved the 1TB HDD that came with the laptop), and used the F4 method. Everything works perfectly now.

As far as which SSD to go with, I've got a Samsung 840 (not the EVO) and it works great. I've also got other Samsung SSDs in my desktop PCs and another laptop, and I like them very much.

 

hey guys,

I have just run a 3d Benchmark and attached the results. I really appreciate if you take a look and comment.

 

Hi,
I got a 32GB ADATA USB Drive from Amazon and I have two questions:
a/ Pushing F4 on startup doesn't do anything, I just have the Samsung logo.
b/ I did a windows backup initially but I then learned that I should have made a factory image. How should I format the drive before re-doing the backup?(FAT32 ?) I did this from the Samsung Recovery app, though.

Finally, am I supposed to boot into F4 and use the Flash Disk as recovery once i install the brand new SSD?

Thanks

 

Looks like I lost the Samsung Recovery Folder in my C drive as well :/ .
This is on the original HDD, I still haven't changed it with the SSD!

EDIT: It worked but I still cannot see the recovery folder. I was trying to access it to recover the F4 link as indicated somewhere on this thread. I am still able to successfully run the SRS6, though which means that the folders till exists somewhere.

UPDATE: I found the SAMSUNG_REC paritions to be marked unused by EASEUS but they are definitely there. I managed to make F4 work. It loaded the recovery window but then I didn't wait to see what happens.
My USB drive is still undetectable by the F10 boot menu. How to deal with that? And is the situation of my recovery normal?

 

Did you actually repartition the factory drive? Unless you used a tool to repartition the factory HDD, you should not have lost the recovery, because it's stored in a different partition than the C drive!

 

The only thing I did was backing up using the Samsung Recovery App. I then tried to change the BIOS booting settings but the F4 didn't work. I had some notice about "updating system" which took a while. And then I opened the system and found that that partition was gone by itself. I am now trying to do a recovery from the Hard Drive which means that the folder still exists(if it all works perfectly).

 

According to notebookcheck.net ( Review Samsung ATIV Book 8 Touch 880Z5E X01 Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews) the 3dmark Cloudgate performance should be around 11300 points, which is slightly higher than your score. Are you running on stock drivers?
I use 3dmark11 and there the score is 3411 points using 13.9 WHQL drivers, I suspect an even higher score using 13.10 or 13.11.
I run Win 8 Pro (factory installed)

 

Shouldn't it be showing the ATI Video card? Are the current ATI drivers stable?

 

13.9 WHQL are stable on Win8 Pro, Win8 and Win8.1.
13.10 beta are stable on Win8 as mentioned in the first page.
Latest ATI beta drivers do not support switchable graphics, so they are out of the question.

The 8870M was also not detected when I ran the 3dmark11 benchmark. However the score shows that it was definitely NOT on the HD4000 (which scores around 700, while the 8870M scores 3411)

 

Exactly, except that LeekM fixed the latest beta drivers. They now work on win 8 and are perfectly stable.

 

You are using this driver now?
And performance increase or is the same