How to: Reduce latencies on Samsung laptops

I'd like to start off thanking Dannemand for providing such excellent information and write-ups. It has been an immense help and with out it I would have been running a bunch of bloat-ware and slowing down my new pc.

I'm running Windows 8 Core on a 15.6" Samsung Series 7 (NP700Z5C-S03CA) with absolutely no Samsung software. It came pre-loaded 42 programs from the factory and running on a 1TB HDD + 16 SDD cache built into the mother board. It was /not/ as fast as I would expect for a brand new laptop in the year 2013. I feel the 5200rpm HDD really these laptops down, on top of all the pre-installed software. My first move was to open it up and swap the HDD with an OCZ Vertex 4 SDD and a clean install of Windows 8. This made a HUGE difference in speed and performance.

One thing I found during the install of Windows 8 - I disabled two options regarding Automatic Windows Update (the one asking if it should download recommended updates and the one asking it should use windows update to install divers and apps - you can re-enable automatic Windows Updates after manually installing all your drivers). I found that if I did not set these to 'No' during install then Windows would install the Intel HD Graphics 4000 driver and an outdated NVIDIA complete with NVIDA automatic update. I prefer installing the drivers manually so I can install the chipset driver before anything else and get the latest NVIDIA driver (driver only) and choose not to install the NVIDIA automatic update program (adds unnecessary overhead when I can periodically check their website for the latest graphics driver) and Phys X software (very few games use this so I don't need it).

Once Windows loads, I downloaded and installed SW Update off the Samsung website then followed Dannemand's guide ( more detailed on page 6) for re-installing drivers:

- Chipset
- Intel Rapid Storage
- Touchpad
- Sound
- Graphics (Intel first then download latest NVIDIA GT 640M off their website and install driver only, not NVIDIA update or Pys X programs)
- LAN
- WiFi Driver - DO NOT INSTAL VIA SW UPDATE *Download it from intel.com > Support > Downloads & Drivers then in the search bar type in 'intel proset/Wireless Software' hit enter then select which operating system applies to you. I downloaded 'Intel PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 8*' (file name: wireless_15.5.7_De64.exe). Make sure you get the driver only, it should be less than 10MB, if it is +70MB then your getting the bloat-ware software package and it is wrong)
- Run Windows Update (Re-enable automatic updates and recommended updates)

That is everything I installed. I did not install any Samsung software. I do not need Settings because the most important Fn keys already work now. The ones that don't are:

F1- opens up Settings which I don't need and don't have installed anyway
F9 & F10 - decreases or increases keyboard backlight, which is not a big deal for me as the standard brightness works good
F11 - silent mode/low power, I just use the Power Settings icon in the notification area of the taskbar
F12 - WiFi/Bluetooth on and off, I just do it manually in Windows if I want to shut them on or off
Eject - ejects the disc from the CD-ROM drive, I just right click > eject on the drive under My Computer
　

Finally, un-install SW Update.

S Agent is installed with SW Update. To completely uninstall Samsung SW Update and S Agent you must open up task manger then look for two processes called something like S Agent and SW Update - kill them then uninstall SW Update from Program and Features. You must then restart your computer and open up task manager again and kill S Agent again - then you can open up Windows Explorer, go into the Programs folder and delete the folder called Samsung (with S Agent inside it).

Hope this has helps someone. I have read this whole thread front to back and it is packed with great info on these laptops.

 

@too_cool_3: First of all welcome to the forum!

Next, thank you for the nice words, glad to hear this thread was useful to you. But more importantly, thanks A LOT for posting your own findings and advice regarding Win8, Windows Update and SW Update. That is exactly the kind of kind of info I hope people will be sharing here.

I instantly Rep'ed your post after reading it (by clicking the Star in the bottom left corner). I am still relatively new here and don't have much Rep Power yet, but a few points is better than nothing

On the subjects you cover:

1) My older Z3A has the 750GB 7200 rpm Hitachi HDD. I tested another model earlier which had the 1TB 5400 rpm HDD, but I don't think there is much difference, despite the higher rotational speed of the 750GB; the 1TB has higher density platters which improve transfer rate. ExpressCache helps some, but certainly an SSD (as you chose) is the faster option.

2) Re Manual vs SW Update vs Windows Update for driver installation: Like you, I prefer to install drivers manually. I must say, though, that SW Update (and before that Easy Software Manager) makes re-installing these Sammies easier than any other laptops I have used. Plus they ensure the correct order or drivers (such as doing Chipset first). Windows Update is best for those drivers where you know it will give you a slimmer driver-only option.

The downside to SW Update is that pesky sAgent, as you point out. Easy Software Manager had a similar service, but at least it uninstalled cleanly. I have found that sAgent SOMETIMES uninstalls with SW Update, but I have not spent time isolating why. I have a separate partition with a Windows installation I use for tests, and SW Update installed there to check for new drivers from time to time. This keeps my main installation lean.

3) Re Intel/Nvidia graphics drivers: I was particularly interested in finding out whether Windows Update might offer a slimmer driver-only option and whether that affected latency spikes. It would be great if you get a chance to test this with LatencyMon. But do make an image backup of your smooth installation first (do that regardless )

4) And yes, I can see how you can get by entirely without Samsung Software. I keep Easy Settings (Win7) for Fn keys and some of its other features (easy ExpressCache management, Battery Life Extender, Bluetooth Power, Keyboard Backlight and Silent Mode). Your Fn-key list provides an excellent reference of the pure-Windows alternatives.

Thanks again for an informative post!

Edit: I almost forgot this: Unfortunately the new Intel wireless_15.5.7_De64.exe driver you mentioned doesn't support the older 6230 wireless card -- and it's only for Win8. The newest driver for 6230 for is still Wireless_15.3.1_Ds64.exe -- which works great for me.

 

Still on 1.x. I've not wanted to fool with extracting the 2.x and installing it, especially since I only basically use it for ExpressCache and the function keys.

 

By the way, have those of you who don't use Easy Settings found that Express Cache works entirely normally after installing the Express Cache service - i.e. it doesn't need to be "reset" or turned on in Easy Settings, in order to work?

 

ExpressCache works just fine without Easy Settings (or Settings in Win8) as long as the ExpressCache software installs without complaining. Easy Settings just provides a user friendly window for managing the ExpressCache service. There is a command line tool (ECCmd) in the ExpressCache folder that that gives you the same functions (and more).

It's is all covered quite extensively in yknyong1's excellent ExpressCache thread linked here.

 

Thank you, noted. Actually 2.x is quite easy to extract: You just save the Settings package for Win8 using SW Update, which creates a Settings 2.0.0.30 folder (under a SystemSoftware folder in a location chosen by you). Inside that is a Win7 folder with an Easy Settings setup program.

And 2.x is a better version of Easy Settings in almost every way: It loads faster, it doesn't require Admin Privileges, and it is compatible with the newer ExpressCache 1.0.94 (also available in SW Update as a Win8 package).

Last weekend I finally got around to digging deeper into how Easy Settings messes with task loading. As hinted by sean.e and documented by your excellent work and report, the Advanced Settings list under Boot Optimization affects which tasks are taken over by Easy Settings EVEN when Boot Optimization is completely disabled. And disabling tasks on that list gets them back where they belong in the registry -- loading much faster, and avoiding the errors that occur when Easy Settings gets it wrong.

As you pointed out, it requires some careful treading to disable these while still keeping Boot Optimization disabled, but it's doable. And the results are great: Using Easy Settings 2.x, with all tasks disabled, Boot Optimization disabled, and the trigger delay for EasySettings reduced from 30 to 10 seconds (in Task Scheduler) my Fn keys now load almost instantly.

Start reading here for those who're interested in this new tweak of Easy Settings (new to me, anyways).

The ultimate goal is if we can get Fn-keys working already on the login screen (so you can adjust keyboard backlight when you have to login in a dark room). My old HP HDX18 does it no problem (controlling keyboard backlight is a firmware feature) but I don't know if it will ever be possible with these Sammies.

Thanks again for your great work

 

Wonderful, many thanks. :thumbsup:

 

Yeah, there's really only a couple of items to configure with it, anyway, so I might toss out Easy Settings completely and write a batch file or two to handle Off-On, Reset, and View Usage Information for the ExpressCache configuration. That being said, I'm noticing that my Usage meter is very low right now, only 74MB, and I haven't cleared it out in a very long time. Is there any evidence to back the idea that everything in that Boot Optimization advanced list is also loaded onto the ExpressCache? Reason I say this is because I remember much more ExpressCache usage prior to my clearing out of that list. This might just be a coincidence, though.

This is helpful info. Like I said above, I could just about get by without having Easy Settings at all, but it does make things slightly more convenient to configure when things are already pruned. I'll give it a shot the next time I have some down time.

 

Not too sure about the 6230 but I have the 6235 with driver version 15.4.0.11 for windows 7.................

 

Thanks a lot, TANWare.

I'll be darned. Where did you find that? Is it an Intel "driver only" package (*Ds64.exe for Win7, *De64.exe for Win8)?

On Intel's download center, the latest drivers I can find when searching for Centrino 6235 (that was a link) is Wireless_15.5.7_De64.exe (Win8, lists 6235 but NOT 6230) and Wireless_15.3.1_Ds64.exe (Win7, oddly lists neither 6230 nor 6235).

If I search for Centrino 6230 (that was a link) I get the same Wireless_15.3.1_Ds64.exe for Win7 and Wireless_15.3.50_De64.exe as the latest Win8 driver.

I simply could not find 15.4.0 on intel.com. A link would be great

 

Yeah, I wish ECCmd would let us see what is actually in that cache. At least it lets us explicitly cache or exclude certain files.

As for your usage meter: I often find that EC flushes when I mess around (with my PC, that is!). It consistently flushes if I have used my other Windows partition, even though that one does NOT have ExpressCache installed. When I mess with Easy Settings, it sometimes does the same. Occasionally it keeps flushing on every boot which can be hard to fix. I've found that uninstalling ExpressCache (reboot), deleting its folders (both in Program Files and ProgramData), re-installing it (reboot), then running bootopt.bat to re-populate the cache, will get it working again. Check Dkbozlog.txt (root dir) to ensure the boot optimizer succeeded. If it fails, try defragging then run bootopt.bat again.

Thanks again for your work on this!

 

hello everybody.
I am from south america and last week i went to new york and bought a samsung NP700Z5C-S02UB equiped with the intel 6235 wifi+bluetooth card.
The laptop came with windows 8 (a pain in the a rse), so when i was in the us i started experimenting a lot of problems with the wifi, but i thought it was win 8.
So when i returned to my country i installed win7 (i wasnt able to make the ssd disc work with the win7 installation, so i installed win7 in the 1tb hdd), but the problems with the wifi signal continued, if the 6235 card is in n mode, i am not able to send NOTHING trough the netwrok because it disconects almost inmediately, and the conection speed is very mediocre.
I am considering selling this pice of carp and buy another one (in my country the only high end laptos available are de nv56 and ideapad y580, i am huge toshiba fan, but they sell mediocre products here).
But the oder thing i was wondering, if is posible to replace the crappy intel 6235 for another card (i dont care loosing bluetooth or midi).
On this video on youtube:
Asus Zenbook UX32VD Wifi Upgrade - YouTube
the guy says that the connectors of the intel where smaller than the 1102 killer, so my question is, does anybody know which wireless card use the same size of conectors as the 6235 and can be installed in the samsung???
Thank you in advance.

 

@gonzagnr: please see my response here.

 

I would also add removing Samsung Easy Share to that list. My 6235 works perfectly.

 

Thank you, Zen. The list is actually much tighter than that.

As discussed in the OP and throughout this thread, Easy Settings (just called Settings in Win8) is the only Samsung software you should keep on a low latency installation -- beyond basic drivers. And for users who need extremely low latency, I recommend even tweaking Easy Settings down to where you only load the Fn keys module and nothing else.

I have actually started keeping SW Update on my Win8 installation to make it easier checking for Samsung software when answering questions here on the forum. But I disabled the scheduled task that loads sAgent (it's a real latency hog) and only load it manually before starting SW Update.

Thanks again.

 

I have read through quite a lot of this thread and it has informed me on a number of things, and thus been very helpful.

I did a fresh install of Windows 7 (formatting my HDD), after getting a laptop with Windows 8 on it. I would like to get my Fn keys working again. How do I download Easy Settings? I assume I should get 2.0. Where do I get this from?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

Use the Find Model option in SW Update to find the Windows 8 drivers for your notebook then download the Settings package. Then extract Easy Settings from it.

John

 

Why do I need to use Windows 8 drivers if I now have Windows 7 installed?

I found Easy Settings 1.1.1.4 online for another laptop. Will it work with mine, or are they tailored for specific models?

 

For reasons best known to Samsung, the V2 of Easy Settings (for Windows 7) is included in the Win7 folder in the Installer for V2 Settings for Windows 8. V2 of Easy Settings doesn't seem to have been separately put into the SW Update database.

You need to save the Win 8 Settings package (SW Update puts it in a folder of your choice) and then run the V2 Easy Settings installer.

John

 

How did you do that, may i ask? """I disabled the scheduled task that loads sAgent (it's """


EDIT ! Got it !

Went: Msconfid > Services and disabled it from there SW Update disabled that

 

Yep, you got it. Or Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Task Sheduler, it's in the top Task Scheduler Library.

BUT do notice that starting this spring, SW Update no longer uses S Agent, but instead has a baked in service ( SW Update Service). Samsung did not have the courtesy to uninstall S Agent, though, it's left running until surgically removed by the user.

To test if your version of SW Update relies on S Agent, try disabling that task in Task Scheduler, reboot, then run SW Update and click the Last Updated Refresh. If it is able to update, you don't need S Agent and can remove it completely.



To remove sAgent, delete the task in Task Scheduler and reboot (if you didn't already reboot with the task disabled), then delete the S Agent programs folder C:\Program Files\Samsung\S Agent.

 

Hello,

Thanks a lot for this thread. I have managed to shave some bloat off and improved smoothness on my 900X4D.

A few issues/questions pop up in the process though, and I would be grateful if someone could elucidate me a bit:

1) I uninstalled Intel Proset Wireless from control Panel - Programs & Features. Then I downloaded and installed the driver only package wireless_16.1.5_De64.exe for my Centrino 6235. Maybe it was a silent install but during the installation (2 minutes maybe) I only saw a square icon with a wireless symbol on it and spinning dots around it telling me something happended. I expected having to clock a button to say OK, go ahead and install or something, but after two minutes it only went away. Upon reboot I check the 6235 in Decice manager and see that under the Driver tab it says Provider: Intel // Version 15.10.3.2 // Date: 22 August 2013. That's pretty recent but should it not say 16.1.5 with is the name of the file I downloaded?

2)I tried to uninstall the Intel Proset Wireless Blutooth but I find no way to do it. In the CP - P&F, the options are only Change and Repair. No option to uninstall is given. How can I uninstall this?

3) Since I don't use blutooth, I even tried disabling the services that run upon boot, but that does not seem to be possible either. Blutooth is disabled from within Samsungs Settings (invoked by FN+F1, is this what Easy Settings referred to all the time is called these days??) and also in Windows 8 PC settings menu I have set it to off, but the Blutooth device monitor and OBEX services are still loaded upon boot. What gives there? Do I have to disable them in Services to get them not to load?

4) It was recommended to not install LAN driver and Blutooth driver either from Software Manager. Okay. But for me those were installed from the factory and Software Manager or CP - P&F do not give options to uninstall. Should I just stop thinking about them, perhaps?

5) What is EasyLauncher? It is also loaded upon boot. Is it good for anything? Can it be uninstalled in some way other than disabling the service from starting?

That was a few questions. Two two first are indeed the most important, I would say.

Thanks everyone.

 

That's good.

Everybody who come across this: Do note that much of the discussion in this thread related to Easy Settings was made irrelevant with Easy Settings 2.x (and now the even newer 2.1.x); and particularly with Win8, which uses a completely different settings program (called just Settings) that doesn't suffer from the same issues as Easy Settings. There is more detail about this, and how to get the latest versions, in the [Easy] Settings thread.

Re 1) That's normal for the Intel WiFi driver: The Driver Only package (which is best) just spins an icon while it installs the driver, but doesn't display an actual confirmation. And yes, the package number (16.1.5 in your case) and the actual driver number (15.10.3. in your case) are not the same. Presumably the package contains multiple drivers for different devices. You can read more about that, including how to optimize your WiFi settings, in our WiFi Remedies thread.

Re 2) In Control Panel-Programs and Features, if you click Change on the PROset Bluetooth driver, it should bring up a window where you can choose Remove to completely uninstall it.

Re 3) Yes, as mentioned above, Easy Settings is collection of Samsung modules for Win7, while the (newer and much better) package for Win8 is called simply Settings. Don't change the Bluetooth service manually. Just disable Bluetooth, either in Settings (Fn-F1) or in the Charms-Settings-PC Settings-Wireless. That will disable the Bluetooth radio in Windows Device Manager, effectively disabling Bluetooth. Unfortunately there is currently no was to completely power off the radio -- the way Easy Settings did in Win7. Again, this is described further in our [Easy] Settings thread.

Re 4) Your LAN driver was included with Win8, no need to worry about it. As for Bluetooth, see (2) and (3) above.

Re 5) I believe Easy Launcher is just a Samsung blotware app, providing an alternative way to launch programs (instead of through the Start screen). Personally I use a 3rd party Start Menu (IObit Start Menu8, but there are others) which makes bloatware launchers like this doubly unnecessary. I would simply uninstall it.

If you do a clean install (as I think you were contemplating) make sure you know about UEFI and GPT first. The post I linked in the X4D thread ( here) contains some mandatory reading. After installing, the post here provides guidance on which Win8 drivers to install.

Update: Please see the following post by mmortal03 and my response below regarding Easy Launcher.

 

Hi Dannemand, I finally installed 2.x on Windows 7. Better late than never, right?

If you don't already know, it's the same situation on the SpeedUp front -- I had to go back in and manually edit the registry to regain access to the items it moves away from the standard startup locations. Also, two things I noticed:

1.) Unrelated to the SpeedUp issues: After installing 2.x over 1.x, I noticed that it seems 2.x loads EasySettings on startup differently. I had two tasks loading EasySettings on login, both EasySettings and EasySettings_config, but those might have been like that in 1.x. However, I noticed I was getting duplicate OSD pop ups when pressing Caps Lock, etc. I noticed that EasySettings triggers at 30 seconds, and EasySettings_config triggers at 38 seconds, so maybe both are/were supposed to be there. Ending one of them would temporarily would fix the duplicate OSD pop ups. but on reboot, the duplicate pop ups returned. After disabling BOTH, it fixed this. I determined that there's now a service that handles loading Easy Settings in 2.x, called Easy Launcher, so I left that on, and left both EasySettings scheduled tasks disabled. I read above that you thought this was just bloatware. This doesn't seem to be the case. Can you verify for me that, instead, it is the new way of loading EasySettings on boot, and that the EasySettings and EasySettings_config scheduled tasks are no longer necessary?

2.) I'm now seeing a scheduled task running called EasySpeedUpManager that I can't remember whether it was there with 1.x or not, and if it was, I can't remember if I had it disabled or not. (Edit: Based on it being set to 3 seconds instead of the default of 30 seconds, I assume that it was present before, because only I would have done that.) You mentioned in a previous thread that you thought it had something to do with Silent Mode and the function keys, but I can't remember if we figured out if it had broader relevance. I disabled it, and rebooted, and the function keys were fine. I don't know about Silent Mode, as I don't use it. Any idea what it really does?

Btw, the SCCSpeedBoost scheduled task remained disabled as I had left it when I installed 2.x, so at least that didn't get re-enabled, which keyed me in to the change when it caused my startup items to not load on reboot. I moved them back to the standard registry locations.

 

Hi mmortal03, good to have you back

Thank you for pointing out about Easy Launcher being an Easy Settings service, not bloatware. I was definitely wrong there in my response to pasticcere. I actually did search my Win7 partition for "easy launcher" before posting, because a little voice in the back of my head told me there was a connection. But I didn't actually boot Win7 -- and I made the stupid mistake of not searching for "easylauncher" (one word) or I would have found it.

@pasticcere: Indeed, Easy Launcher is a part of Easy Settings, not Samsung bloat. And there is no uninstall for it in the P&F control panel. But from your other comments, I thought you are using Win8, not Win7, right? Samsung Settings (for Win8) doesn't use an Easy Launcher service. If you are using Win8 and installed Easy Settings, you want to uninstall it, install Settings and leave it at that.

@mmortal03, back to your excellent points:

Re 1) With Easy Settings 2.x, I basically recommend minimal tweaking (or none at all). AS you found, most of its modules load through a service, not as Scheduled Tasks. It DOES indeed load the two tasks you mention: EasySettings and EasySettings_config, both loading the same binary, but with different delays and different parameters. When I tested tweaking their delays or disabling one of them, it broke Google drive among other things. (I had to locate my own posts here and here to refresh my memory on that).

Because of this, and because 2.x improves Easy Settings load times in itself, I decided not to recommend any tweaks for 2.x. Those who want the slimmest possibly install, can still sideload EasyDisplayManager from 1.x (or even from 2.x if you can figure out the CmdServer syntax needed to load it).

Re 2) EasySpeedUpManager is definitely the module responsibly for implementing Silent Mode (Fn-F11) and Eco Mode. It was there in 1.x as well. It pulls a firmware lever to cap CPU speed at a low level, and switches to the Power Saver profile. If it isn't loaded, those functions don't work. I don't mind having a longer delay loading this one, since I rarely need to toggle Silent Mode immediately after boot. But I don't think it hurts to load it faster -- or not load it at all.

As for SCCSpeedBoot, I still think that it's main function is to load the selected display color profile after login -- although I admit it is an odd name for that function. The only effect I found when disabling it (or changing its delay) was that the display color profile selected in Easy Settings didn't load.

I would strongly advice to uninstall Easy Settings 1.x before installing 2.x (reboots in between) -- particularly if you have tweaked the 1.x installation. It is a very different architecture (loading through the service instead of as tasks).

Regardless of Easy Settings version, would I still make sure to disable Samsung Boot Optimization. In my opinion it is one of the worst examples of Samsung software (which, thankfully, didn't carry over to Settings in Win8). I am convinced that many strange behaviors encountered by users can be traced back to this feature. And it is a lot of work to fully defeat it and restore all tasks that have been snatched by it. You and member sean.e spearheaded this discussion back here, and I finally got around to testing it here. Once again thank you for bringing attention to that!

 

Thanks for the response. I bet the reason messing with those Easy Settings scheduled tasks broke Google Drive among other things is because of its involvement with Boot Optimization (Fast Boot). If you recall, even with Boot Optimization disabled, Easy Settings still moves startup items from the standard area of the registry to being under its own control, and can then not load them unless you manually move them back. The SCCSpeedBoot scheduled task may directly handle this, but the Easy Settings scheduled tasks may also play a part, and when you go to start disabling things, the actual source of the problem of these startup items not loading may not be so obvious.

I noticed that along with the standard startup areas of the registry, Boot Optimization also makes records of other scheduled tasks and puts them in a SCHEDULE key in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Samsung\Easy SpeedUp Manager\SCHEDULE.

On my system, the two items it did this to were GoogleUpdateTaskMachineCore and MATLAB R2013a Startup Accelerator. The former item makes me think that Google likes to use scheduled tasks for its software, so I wouldn't be surprised if a Google Drive scheduled task got interfered with when you were doing your testing, and disabling those Easy Settings scheduled tasks was simply indirectly triggering your problems.

On my system, Boot Optimization doesn't seem to have actually "moved" those two scheduled tasks anywhere, though, (as they are still present in Task Scheduler) but it makes me think that Easy Settings is still doing something with them. Google Drive may also just have a regular startup item that was moved on your system.

Like I mentioned above, I manually moved all the startup items back in the registry just like I did with 1.x, and have disabled the involved Samsung scheduled tasks, and now have no issues with stuff not loading.

I think that was just a coincidence. One of the startup items that is commonly moved by Boot Optimization (even when Boot Optimization is disabled) is igfxtray.exe, which has to do with loading color profiles. After disabling SCCSpeedBoot, this startup item would no longer have been loading for you, meaning the color profile configuration behind Easy Settings wouldn't have worked. You would have had to manually reverse the damage of Boot Optimization and then disable SCCSpeedBoot to get that working again (if you wanted to leave those scheduled tasks disabled for performance reasons).

I was misreading what you meant by (Fn-F11). I thought you were saying it handled all the function keys, not just F11. Sorry about that. I think you are right about this one. I just enabled it and Silent Mode works, and disabling it breaks Silent Mode. The only weird thing about it is that they use the name for this service "EasySpeedupManager" in their registry key involving Boot Optimization (called "Easy SpeedUp Manager" there), but the actual scheduled task for handling these Boot Optimization startup items is SCCSpeedBoot!

 

@mmortal03: Sure, it could have been it was just Boot Optimization / Fast Boot that snatched those Google Drive and Google update tasks and messed it up. (The problem was that Google Drive insisted on loading when my wife logged into her account, even though she doesn't have a Google Drive account and we specifically disabled loading it for her. In other words, she didn't even HAVE that task, which Easy Settings kept loading on its own after snatching it in my account.)

Indeed, once I realized that Fast Boot keeps snatching tasks that doesn't belong to it -- EVEN after disabling the option -- that was a turning point in my already sour relationship with Easy Settings. Of course I since got all those tasks restored, as described when we discussed this back in January. But it is just unbelievable that we have to go to such lengths to defeat a feature, even after disabling it.

Regardless, I switched to Win8 shortly thereafter (when Microsoft's $15 upgrade offer was about to expire) and I hardly ever boot my Win7 partition anymore. So I must admit that I haven't kept this thread up as well as I probably should.

Fortunately, the new Samsung Settings for Win8 doesn't have any of these problems. It's a much cleaner implementation -- although it also lacks a few features from Easy Settings.

So you think that SCCSpeedBoot is responsible for the entire Boot Optimization debacle (if I understand you correctly)? Interesting.

That would mean the snatched tasks shouldn't load at all when the SCCSpeedBoot task is disabled (including numerous important tasks). I am pretty sure I tested with the SCCSpeedBoot task disabled last summer and fall (before learning how to restore Boot Optimized tasks) and didn't see any such dramatic effects -- other than the aforemention color profile not being loaded. But I am not ruling it out.

Since you are still working on this, it would be great if you can summarize any conclusions and potential advice for Easy Settings users and post them in the new [Easy] Settings thread linked below. Thanks again!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/729139-settings-easy-settings-what-you-need-know.html

 

Maybe this question was already asked.I don t get it .If i uninstall Easy Settings where do i need to put Easy Settings file that i copy.
Also SWUpdate always return when i uninstall it.I delete it from task manager.

 

What you do is copy the entire Easy Settings folder while it is still installed normally (so you have C:\Program Files (x86)\Samsung\Easy Settings - Copy), then uninstall Easy Settings (Programs & Features control panel), then rename the copied folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\Samsung\Easy Settings. Now you can create a shortcut to dmhkcore.exe in the Start Menu Startup folder.

That trick only works with Easy Settings version 1.x, not the newer 2.x. I generally recommend 2.x because it is better behaved in other ways and loads a lot faster. But for PCs that need extremely tight trimming and low latencies (real time audio etc) this trick is still an option.

I've seen a few people mention that problem with SW Update (re)installing software automatically. Personally I have never experienced that: SW Update never does anything on my computer unless I tell it to.

I wonder if there is another Samsung support app you have installed that makes this happen. Could you post a screendump (or list) of everything in your Programs & Features control panel? Let's see if we can nail this.

 

Thanks ,i manage to uninstall SW Update now it doesnt return any more.What i did is disable it in Services and task manager.
I also manage to do that thing with Easy settings.Now i like it more because when it was install sometimes i need to log of and then on to enable light on keyboard.I dont remember did i have version 2.x installed.Now is 1.x
But i am still getting ever minute one big yellow line(on border with red) in dpc latency checker and i never get that on desktop pc..

 

Good, that sounds like an improvement.

Some of the gauges in LatencyMon can go pretty high and still be OK. You want to click the PLAY button, which monitors latencies and displays green text as long as they are OK, and red text when they spike too much. You probably knew that, I just wanted to make sure...

Even then, I wouldn't worry too much about occasional spikes, unless you have an actual realtime processing need. I agree it's annoying and we want our computers to be perfectly smooth. But it's a high bar with today's bloated operating systems and software, where every little utility is considered by its author to be the most important software on every user's machine.

I take it you already looked at the other items mentioned in the opening post of this thread (AV, WiFi and Bluetooth drivers, System Restore etc).

 

It is definitely WiFi.When i disable it i have same readings as on PC and that means perfect.
I dont use system restore.
I hope bluetooth is disable ,i dont see icon next to wifi icon when i disable or enable it with f12.
I must go sleep,so if you write something i will read in the morning.
See you and tnx

 

I definitely recommend you uninstall all Bluetooth drivers and leave it to Win7's built-in drivers. The problem when you just sideload Fn-keys and don't fully install Easy Settings, is that you cannot turn off Bluetooth power completely. You can disable the radio in Device Manager, but it may still use some power.

I have to clock out now as well, and I am gone almost all day tomorrow.

 

I dont know why Samsung complicated these things.I could wake Asus from sleep without any Asus software ,only windows.
Everything is fine with Easy Settings uninstall(only folder).
Only thing now is ,nothing happening when i open lid.I need to click on power button to wake it up.
Is there solution to this problem.i try to google it but it seems there is no solution,of course only Easy Settings

 

Check this discussion for more on that subject. In summary: You may be able to get Samsung Fast Start (automatic wake on lid-open) by sideloading SmartSetting the same way as EasyDisplayMgr.

 

Hey i decided to just forget about this.I don't know how ,but i manage to disable wifi and could not get it back what ever i tried.I was forced to make fresh installation.
I will leave Easy settings and thats it.
I said long time before on overclock.net:
Hardware manufacturer never new how to make good software and i dont know whats reason to that.I dont speak here only about Samsung ,Gigabyte is the worst ,Asus and all the rest.
In fact i would forbid them by the law to make software's for their products.
Please ,PLEASE ,leave this to small company like Piriform ,FinalWire.... or just make keyboard shortcuts to hardware

 

Hello, Dannemand

I've been following your posts on how to get the Fn keys to work without having Easy Settings installed.

I own a Samsung 700Z7C and it's running Windows 8. Because of Win8, the program that it's installed is Settings, and not Easy Settings.
I have done the steps you described a few pages back, where you install Easy Settings, copy the folder, uninstall Easy Settings and then change the copied folder's name to Easy Settings. I have done all that, but with Settings program.

Now, my problem is I can't find any "EasyDisplayMgr" nor "dmhkcore.exe" inside the folder. Did Samsung change it's name for the Settings program? Do you know how can I accomplish what you did, but with Settings?

Thanks!

 

Hello RodWall, welcome to NBR.

Unfortunately that trick only works with Easy Settings (Win7), not with Settings (Win8). Although they have some elements in common, the way Settings is implemented and loads is quite different from Easy Settings, and I have not found a way to partially load Settings. For compatibility reasons, I generally do not recommend installing Easy Settings in Win8 (or Settings in Win7).

I should say that Settings is already a cleaner implementation than the old Easy Settings: It loads much faster, it doesn't have as many latency issues, and it doesn't have that horrid Boot Optimization feature. But admittedly, it's still not quite as trim as simply sideloading dmhkcore.

BTW, we created a newer thread that covers both Settings and Easy Settings.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/729139-settings-easy-settings-what-you-need-know.html

If you find any tricks to partially load Settings (or similar) please share them

 

Thanks for your answer and for pointing that thread.

I ended up installing Settings and keeping everything "stock".

I will share if I find anything on partially loading Settings!

 

Good. I think that's the right choice, then work from there.

 

Hello,

I do not know this is good place for this thread if not I please moderator to move it to correct place of the forum

I have this laptop: NP300VPA-S04.

I have more and more issues with laptop, especially so called responsiveness, lags, freezes ect. Example I open Notepad but wait few seconds after I click File>New.
Opening Calculator takes ages when we consider it is just simple app.
Web browser freeze from time to time ("no response").

I am tired of this and I try to nail exact cause of this behavior.

1. I have read this thread - Settings/Easy Settings - what you need to know and Reduce latencies on Samsung laptops.
2. I have installed system with minimalistic drivers. No Intel's ProSet, no Samsung's bloatware. Minimal things plus Settings (downloaded externally special version IIRC).
3. I have done this almost half year ago.
4. I have installed Samsung's Recovery Suite.
5. I have Windows 7 x64 full updates.​

Here some logs from event watcher which I consider interesting - as I use Klingon language for you I must translate so it is not exact error name:

Code 11 Atapi

Spoiler

Driver detected an controler error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0

For four cores, Code 37, Kernel-processor-power

Spoiler

Processor 0 in group 0 speed is limited by system's software. The processor had limited performance for 83602 seconds since last report.

I have also run LatencyMon, here is the result:

Spoiler: Stats

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:04:48 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: FORSBERG-LAPTOP
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware: 300V3A/300V4A/300V5A/200A4B/200A5B, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 8105 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed: 2294 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 25497,377573
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 8,150109

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1808,077806
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 1,281522


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 149,476024
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ataport.SYS - ATAPI Driver Extension, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0,066408
Driver with highest ISR total time: hal.dll - Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0,150457

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 355689
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 2947,469050
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: ndis.sys - Sterownik NDIS 6.20, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0,035087
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: i8042prt.sys - Sterownik portu i8042, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0,180039

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 575044
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 131
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 7
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 1
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: svchost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 105
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 46
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 32972451,342197
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 5,36670
Number of processes hit: 10


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 6,151021
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 149,476024
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 1,734172
CPU 0 ISR count: 355689
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 2947,469050
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 1,939240
CPU 0 DPC count: 552284
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,390539
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 1 ISR count: 0
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 245,069311
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0,020001
CPU 1 DPC count: 4524
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1,741382
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 2 ISR count: 0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 344,082825
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0,068978
CPU 2 DPC count: 9870
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2,055771
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0
CPU 3 ISR count: 0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 396,544464
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0,046912
CPU 3 DPC count: 8505
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What could I do more to get laptop working normal?
I would rather avoid remove Settings because there is no other app which can control volume and brightness of screen via keys.
After I restart system it is OK till next hibernation & wake up few times, usually 3 days.

Today I know I will never buy Samsung laptop again. But it would be waste of money throwing this thing to trash so I beg for some kind solution to make this laptop working normally.

 

I've merged your post into the main discussion about latency issues so your comments add to the knowledge in that thread.

If you are lucky, someone else who has battled with the latency issues will respond and comment.

John