Intel Rapid Start Technology (IRST / IRSTRT) on Samsung Notebooks

This note applies to models NP900X3B and NP900X4B (“B” versions). The section about selection of options probably also applies to models NP900X3C and NP900X4C (“C” versions).

Some Background
Intel Rapid Start Technology (IRST) is a new development by Intel to facilitate faster wake-up of a sleeping computer. The main new feature is a dedicated hibernation partition which is the same size as the system RAM. While the underlying technology is not well explained, I presume that it uses direct mapping between RAM and storage, which is kept updated while the computer is running and then facilitates fast return from hibernation because it initially only loads those pages relating to the active applications. The return from hibernation is much faster than the normal windows hibernation - there’s a blank screen for only a few seconds.

Enabling the Timer
The default Samsung installation of IRST as supplied on the “B” versions of the Series 9 does not provide the user to change the default timer setting (time unknown) for the computer to switch from sleep (which uses power) to hibernate (which does not use power). As a result, a sleeping computer left overnight on battery incurs a drop in battery charge of typically 6%.
Research revealed that some implementations of IRST included an IRST Manager which enables user control of the time delay for transition from sleep to hibernation. This Manager was nowhere to be found in the IRST version 1.0.0.1007 shipped with the “B” versions).

Investigation revealed that the newer version of IRST (1.0.0.1015) offered for the “C” versions on the Samsung download site (use this link) included the IRST Manager. The Readme.txt file also described some of the available options that are in the registry:

The following steps are recommended to install and use the improved version of IRST:

(i) Download the newer version of IRST from either the NP900X3C or NP900X4C download pages.
(ii) Uninstall the existing IRST software. It is more reliable to do this using Windows Control Panel’s Programs and Features than Samsung’s Easy Software Manager (for most users ESM’s only benefit is finding Samsung updates).
(iii) Unzip the IRST software package and install the newer version of IRST by right-clicking on setup.exe and selecting Run as administrator.
(iv) Run Regedit.exe and search for “InvisibleMode”. Change the value from 1 to 0. Also change HideMessagePrompts from 1 to 0 if you want to see any messages. Close regedit and reboot the computer.
(v) Right-click on the notification area and select Customize notification icons. Find Intel Rapid Start Technology Manager and change the option to Show icon and notifications. You should now see a blue icon. If you cannot see it, try another reboot. If you get an error message when starting IRST Manager, ignore it. It should not appear again after the next reboot.
(vi) If you can see the blue icon then click on it and select Settings. Close any windows error message that appears. You should now see this window: Make sure that the three on/off options are set to On and select the time you want the computer to sleep before hibernating. Save the setting and reboot the computer.
(vii) After reboot you should find (a) that there is no error message when you try to access the IRST settings and (b) the time delay is the value you previously set.

I am currently using 30 minutes for the timer.

Installing IRST on a new Windows Installation
Many of us don't like there being so little space remaining for the user with Samsung's default installation on a 128GB SSD, so after using the Samsung Recovery Solution to backup the software and drivers will be tempted to format the SSD and reinstall Windows (tip: disable the Samsung Fast Boot

I found that getting IRST airbourne again was a little challenge. These steps may help:

1. After reinstalling Windows disable hibernation using the command "powercfg / hibernate off". This should delete the hibernation file hiberfil.sys (if it doesn't work see step 6).
2. Run the program SecsSWMgrGuide.exe on the disk made by Samsung Recovery Solution. This loads the Easy Software Manager.
3. Select and Install Samsung Easy Settings (I suggest you also install all the other drivers and and software you want at this stage before doing battle with IRST)
4. Select Intel Rapid Start Technology (probably version 1.0.0.1007) from the list of drivers offered by Easy Software Manager and install it. This will add an on/off control for IRST at the bottom of Easy Settings' General page. Go to the bottom of Easy Settings General page and make sure that Intel Rapid Start Technology is On. Easy Settings will then run a routine to create the Hibernation partition (if not at this stage it does it after the next reboot).
5. Reboot. Check if Disk Management shows that you have a Hibernation Partition.
6. Check that hiberfil.sys is not present in C:\ (step 1 should have deleted it). If it is still there then:
(a) Type "Command" in the search box on the start menu
(b) Right click on Command.com and select Run as Administrator
(c) Check if you are in the root folder of C (the prompt should be C:\> ). If not, type CD \.
(d) Type "del /AS hiberfil.sys
7. Follow the instructions above for enabling the timer.

The above has largely been written from memory so there may be some gaps. Please comment on / add to / correct the procedure noted above. I will edit this first post.

It appears that the two different IRST packages complement each other. Version 1.0.0.1007 contains a script for configuring Easy Settings and creating the hibernation partition while version 1.0.0.1015 contains the IRST manager. Perhaps Samsung will eventually figure out that they need both facilities in order to get IRST working properly.

John

March 2013 PS: Intel offers a version 2 of IRSTRT although it is not offered through Samsung's SW Update. I have tried IRSTRT 2 on both my NP900X3B and NP900X4C. The former worked OK previously while the original IRSTRT on the latter lost the timer setting on approx every 3rd reboot. This problem seems to have gone away since the update.

 

The proper way to delete the Windows hibernation file is to use powercfg to turn off the hibernation feature, thus eliminating the file.

From an elevated command cosole, type the following:

Code:

powercfg /hibernate off

 

I tried that first but perhaps because I had IRST installed, I got a message along the lines that the computer did not support hibernation and consequently that command didn't work.

John

 

This works on a Windows 7 OS installation that hasn't been tampered with by installing 3rd party products.

You might just make it a note or something in your original. Thanks.

 

OK. The best thing is probably to disable hibernation using that command before trying to install IRST. Original post updated.

John

 

You are amazing. Thanks for this. The only thing I would add is what I said once before: I don't think the hibernate partition is created until you enable Rapid Start through Easy Settings. (On the other hand, my installation of Rapid start was so gummed up that by the time I got it working who knows how it happened.)

 

You may be right: I'll review what I have written. One key point is that if the Hibernation partition already exists then one of the Samsung packages wants to make another. If you tell it to cancel then it will try again after the next reboot. I ended up deleting the Hibernation partition using Diskpart then expanding the Windows partition to fill all the space. After that Easy Settings could create a new Hibernation partition and set a flag somewhere that it had done so.

John

 

Nice write up! It's about time the IRST had it's own thread. This topic took up like the last 30 pages of the original NP900X3B thread alone. I got mine working pretty easily with the windows that came installed. I'll wipe it to do a fresh windows installation and follow these steps and will report back if there are any errors in the procedures.

For redundancy, here is a copy/paste of my summary. It's basically the same as John's steps for installation of windows that came with the S9:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...g-series-9-13-3-np900x3b-156.html#post8483900

 

Just a small update: Closed the notebook lid for 24 hours, opened it again with only 1% battery loss, so it looks like you really do need to do these tweaks to get IRST to work. This 1% drain is well within error margins, so it could be 0% loss as well.

 

I would say "work properly". The sleep mode works fine in the default installation but there's no control over the transition to hibernation.

John

 

FINALLY!! I've done it!!!
I changed 'EnableOSHybridSleepUpdate' to (1) and I can now change the time!!
I don't know if this was the only factor that made this install successful though...
I actually first uninstalled IRST then installed it again with no success. But then I decided to install it again without uninstalling and it worked!
I also uninstalled my antivirus so it wouldn't block any actions.
Hopefully you guys can understand what I said but anyway thank you so much for your help!!!

Well I still do have minor issues such as:
-the icon will only appear in my tray when I click the IRST manager in windows start, if I click customize and select to 'show icons and notifications' the IRST it will say it will only show when activated
-if I go to to my tray and click customize it shows 2 IRST manager icons as well as my uninstalled Antivirus icons...

 

^ now check to make sure it actually goes into hibernation without losing any battery life.

 

I had that problem before I wiped the SSD and reinstalled Windows. I don't recall fixing that problem. See here for some guidance on editing the registry. Do a backup first then try removing one entry. If that doesn't work then remove both and install the newer IRST again.

John

 

Thanks for the info. Would be grateful for some expert advice on 2 things:

1. When the laptop is left on after the critical battery message it seems like it tries to hibernate normally, which it can't do (perhaps because I simply deleted the hibernation file before reading this guide), and then when I switch on again I get the Windows didn't shut down normally message. What's the best way around this? Ideally it should go into the IRST hibernation at that point without any time delay.

2. Would it make any sense to install the Easy Software Manager from the 9003C page if we have installed other software (like the IRST software) from that page? In order to best keep everything updated?

 

Regarding the switch to hibernation, have a look in the registry at HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Wow6432\Node\Intel\Irstrt\Parameters. What values do you have for (i) BIOSCriticalBatteryEnabled; (ii) CriticalBatteryenabled; and (iii) DisableCriticalBatteryWakeControl? My values are 1, 1 and 0 but I haven't tried running the battery right down to see what happens.

I think I had tried the Easy Software Manager from the X3C downloads and couldn't see any obvious differences. It probably includes support for the newer models.

John

And a PS to others: I just noticed a BIOSTimerEnabled entry of 720. Might that mean that the default timeout is 12 hours (720 minutes)?

 

I have the same values. I might try switching the IRST off and then disabling windows hibernation.
I guess it's not an issue that is going to come up very often

 

I don't have hibernation is an option in Windows. I think IRST tries to disable it during installation but, in addition, I didn't want to lose the disk space used by hiberfil.sys. Now that I have a working timer control for IRST it is very easy to change the timeout to go into hibernation. 0 = go straight to hibernation - I've just tested it.

John

 

Well, I'm through step 2 of getting the computer ready. Clean install and IRST working. Great instructions, worked like a charm. Now just going to have to test if IRST is actually working.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Testing that it works doesn't take long. Set the timer to 0, close the lid, wait a minute and then open it. If there's a several second delay before everything is back on the screen then you know its is working. Then set the timer to whatever suit you, like 30 minutes.

John

 

Yea just tested it out, there is a noticeable difference when I have the timeout set to 0 versus 20 minutes. I would say testing was successful. Thank you oh guru of Series 9 laptops.

Got rid of the page file, the Windows hibernate file and the restore partition, gained myself 36GB.

Now I've got the SSD set up with a boot partition, windows partition and IRST partition with about 50GB available for additional partitions. Think I'm going to create the Linux partitions and a shared data partition.

 

OK, I've had a problem that is extremely frustrating lately.

Sometimes, when I close the lid, I'll come back to a VERY hot computer (because it not only hasn't gone to sleep, but it stays on!) or a computer completely drained of battery. Has anyone else had this happen?

I have uninstalled and re-installed the IRST and Easy Settings with the latest versions from the C download page. Any idea what is going on?

What Easy Settings do you have on? Fast start and Fast boot enabled or disables, or does it matter?

Thanks!

 

Fast anything should be enabled. What timeout do you have set for going into hibernation (see the Task Bar's IRST Manager settings)?

I would look in Event Viewer's System Log to see what happens when you put the computer to sleep. There should be a Kernel Power event announcing that the computer is going to sleep. What is in the log between then and when you next use the computer? Is it either (a) not going to sleep or (b) waking up. If it is waking up then go through the properties of the devices in Device Manager and make sure that for any that have Power Management properties "Allow this device to wake the computer" is deselected.

John

 

I did have this problem, and it turned out, in my case, to be several problems: first, IRST driver wasn't installed, fast everything wasn't enabled. But once I got the IRST stuff fixed, I had a couple of those baked computer events. Just by chance I discovered that a wireless printer driver was keeping the computer awake. Once I installed a different driver, problem went away. Doubt this will help you, but it does make me think you probably have a driver issue.

 

It looks like when the computer was trying to go to sleep, an error at the same time popped up:

The driver \Driver\WSDPrintDevice for device (bunch of letters) stopped the power transition.

What do you think? The annoying part is that this happens intermittently. I'm going to try and listen for the fans shutting down to see if I can identify the next instance of failure. Thanks for the input!

 

That problem is not unknown. WSD means Web Search Device. See if you can figure out which printer and then see if there is a newer driver. There are some other Google hits which give other trouble-shooting suggestions.

John

 

I followed this guide and didn't have success re-installing Easy Software Manager. It installed but I can't open it, it immediately says that the software isn't compatible with my model or operating system. I deleted the IRST and Recovery Partition and installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

 

Do you mean Easy Settings, not Easy Software Manager? Which model notebook do you have?

John

 

I mean Easy Software Manager. Easy settings (that make the function keys work) installed just fine.

I want to follow the guide from the first post (New windows installation, step 4) to get IRST working on my NP900X4C-A01US

I got off a web chat the other day with Samsung that said that Easy Software Manager will not work on Windows 7 Ultimate and I would have to pay them to re-image the drive. I installed Windows Home from their recovery DVD and still couldn't get it to run. I have a feeling it's a registry value in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation

My values are blank, can someone tell me what values are in their registry for that path

 

I also have the same exact issue. I wiped out the SSD, installed Win 7 Enterprise and got an error while installing the Intel Rapid Start drivers off Samsung's download page:


I then installed Win 7 Home Professional that came with the laptop and still get the same error. I tried installing the Samsung Easy Software Manager and got this error:


I'd like to get this working. Any help/suggestions would be awesome.

 

Samsung's Easy Settings handles the configuration of IRST. As I noted at the start of this thread, E needed two versions of Easy Settings to get IRST working properly.

Easy Software Manager is not essential for installing other Samsung drivers/ software.

John

 

I installed the version of Windows that came with the machine (Windows 7 64bit Home Premium). I then installed all of the device drivers; Chipset, Video, Wireless and the like (NOT the Intel Rapid Start program). Then I followed your steps :

This worked.

This is the step where I received the "Easy Software Manager Unsupported Model Error.

I, however, did not have a "SecsSWMgrGuide.exe" so I downloaded "Easy Software manager (Software) (ver.1.2.17.12)" from Samsung's site ( http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/NP900X4C-A01US). The executable is called SWM_Setup.exe but I assume it's the same program but I could be wrong.

 

I wonder if the unsupported model message is the result of Samsung posting what they think is a universal program but which is not. Try the Samsung global downloads site and see if you can find an older version of the ESM installer.

John

 

I called Samsung's support after trying many different versions of the ESM and even doing a clean install of Windows. Samsung's response was that their ESM program was not compatible with the OS I had currently installed which was the version of Windows that came from the Samsung Recovery OS disk. They said the only solution was to send it to them and they would re-image the machine for a cost of $39 ... NO THANKS!

 

Can someone who owns a Samsung Series 9 Laptop please post the Registry values in this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation

Thanks!

 

Mine (a reinstallation of the supplied Win 7 HP on my X3B) says "(value not set)".

John

 

I have a 900X4C-A01UK and my value at that path is blank, I can also tell you that I have performed a clean install of Windows Ultimate and have not had any problem installing Easy Software Manager (and I don't think I did anything particularly special during the re-install either).

 

Does anyone know how to ensure the Samsung Series 5 asks for a password after resuming with Intel Rapid Start? Additionally, anyone know how to make TrueCrypt ask for the password again (full disk encryption)?

 

Good questions and I can't find an answer. This technology bypasses the Windows sleep / hibernation and there's no registry entry under IRST for asking for a password on wake-up. Intel need to add something.

You can try a password at the BIOS level. It might work for hibernation.

John

PS: You can set an unattended computer to lock using Easy Settings > Screen Saver > And enable "On resume, display logon screen". That will lock the computer after the set time period even if the screen saver is set to "None" (note that to change the timeout you need to temporarily select a screen saver, change the time and then select none.

 

Hi,

I had the same problem. While I could not solve the one regarding the Software Manager, the second one appears, when you activate the UEFI mode in BIOS. After deactivating, I could install the Rapid Start.


Another thing: I recognized, that the touchpad functions as scroll, contect menu by two finger clicks etc. does not for for a while after Windows start. There is some time delay until the touchpad starts working. Does anybody have/had the same problem?

 

Enabling UEFI on Samsung notebooks seems to have several bad side-effects at present. You've just found another.

I think this is normal. Windows gives the appears of having started up in less than 10 seconds but, in reality, there is a lot still going on in the background which reduces responsiveness.

John

 

Hello John,
Really useful guide. Thanks a lot.
I am a X3C owner who made a fresh windows install, and ran in following problems following the procedure:

step 6:
I could not find "command" anywhere. In the end, I set the user account control setting to the lowest setting, and then it worked.
step 4:
X3C owners will not see version 1.0.0.1007 from the list of drivers offered by Easy Software Manager. In that case they should go to the download support section for NP900X3B on the Samsung website and download that version from there.

 

For all X3C owners who make a fresh Win7 install and try to make Intel Rapid Start work i just wanted to let you know what I ran into and how i solved it.

The guide posted here didn't work for me. The reason tunred out to be that the rapid start partition wasn't there any more. I restored an image backup on the SSD that didn't have a partition. Using the Samsung ESM (enabling rapid start) would normally create that partition for you (it says it does at least...).

But, it turns out that it doesn't. The reason is that the Virtual Disk Manager who actually does the shrinking needs the Disk Defrag service running to shrink the partition to make room for the rapid start partition. And....indeed, Disk Defrag service is disabled by Windows because it is an SSD.

So, in the end; enable Disk Defrag and just follow the Samsung ESM install instructions and it works! Don't forget to disable Disk Defrag when done, you don't want to ruin your SSD.

 

I did not have that experience. For me the guide from John worked, except for the points mentioned in my previous post. And I think (but not 100% sure) that I disabled my Disk Defrag beforehand.
I am not a specialist. Could the reason be that in my case, I had reformatted the SSD before making a clean Windows installation and the Disk Manager could shrink a partition without problems? I remember that in my original bought X3C with Windows installed, I could not shrink the main partition freely due to some files that could not be moved.
So could it be that for John's guide to work in all cases, Disk Defrag has to be enabled?

 

By ESM do you mean Easy Software Manager or Easy Settings? I think it's the latter that tries to make the partition.

I know that my guide isn't perfect. It's taken me a week of fiddling to get the Rapid Start working properly on my X4C because RapidStartConfig.exe wasn't automatically starting. I think the fix that worked was changing the properties to run as administrator. This fix was not necessary on my X3B.

We now need Intel / Samsung improve on the rapid start config to (i) not bypass any password prompts set by the user and (ii) provide the intelligence to hibernate if on battery but not if on mains power.

John

 

Maybe a stupid question - but I'll still ask: does anyone know if/how this works in Linux?!?

 

Hi, this thread is very interesting as I want to install Windows 7 from new on my 900X4C, too. But I have a very different problem right now. I cannot make the notebook boot from any USB device. I have disabled booting from the SSD in the BIOS and moved all USB entries before the internal SSD, but it won't find my USB sticks. I have tried two. One with Win7 x86 which has worked well on other machines in the past, and a new USB3 stick with Win7 x64. What do I need to do to make it boot from the USB stick?

 

Try pressing F10 at the BIOS screen. It got me to a boot device menu.

John

 

Oh, a hidden BIOS hotkey? Are there more?

I found out that I need to do the following to make it work:
* Disable Fast Boot. I had done that before but it didn't help the first time I tried. Seems a bit of a fortune game.
* Use the USB2 port. When using a USB3 port, Windows setup asked me for some unspecified drivers. At least with a USB3 stick.

I have installed Win7x64 now within the original partition (formatted). Easy Settings and Easy Software Manager are working fine. Rapid Start and the timer are working (tested with a power meter). Wakeup times from Off (S5), Rapid Start (S4?) and Standby (S3) are the same as with the OEM Windows setup before. Windows password is requested on wakeup.

But my Easy Settings looks different now. I have the new section "Boot management" (de: Boot-Verwaltung) that contains Fast Boot, on/off switch behaviour and lid open behaviour. The General section (de: Allgemein) does not contain a Rapid Start option. The Intel tool is available and works though.

I still wanted to compare performance of Rapid Start and Windows Hibernate Mode but the command 'powercfg /hibernate on' (as admin) fails with an error saying my system firmware does not support it. Even after disabling and stopping Rapid Start. How can that be, does the computer need to support Windows' own hibernate function?

Now that all went fine, I think I'm going the next step to repartition my disk and do it all again. (Until now I still had my recovery partition which I am now giving up for the additional space.) Should I leave 8 GB free space at the end of the disk from the beginning or is it generally easier to have the main partition shrinked by some tools as described here?

 

1. Other hotkeys: Pressing F4 at the BIOS level should load into Samsung Recovery Solution (provided the recovery partition exists). Esc used to get to the one time boot menu (that was never documented either). The only way to find out if there are more hotkeys is to try.

2. The Windows 7 installer doesn't know how to handle USB 3.0. It might be possible to get round this by using the F6 option to load the Renesas USB 3,0 driver. I haven't tried.

3. I think you now have a newer version of Easy Settings. I have the Boot Management Menu on my X4C but not on the X3B.

4. I think installing Intel rapid start flips a switch which disables Windows hibernation. My experience is that Intel rapid start is faster than normal hibernation/ resume in 2 ways: (i) It updates a copy of the RAM in the hibernation partition in the background so there's no time spent writing the hibernation file; and (ii) on resume it starts by loading what were the active RAM contents so it doesn't have to load everything before being ready to work. (You need to check that IRSTRT is really working - if the computer is left overnight then it should have hibernated and take 10 seconds or so to wake up).

5. Before deleting the recovery partition make a backup of the drivers and software using Samsung Recovery Solution. The webcam driver is in the Cyberlink Youcam package which is not available for download.

John

 

I could try again on the availability of Windows hibernate next time, before installing the IRS driver.

The backup of the system software is currently running. From SSD to USB3 it makes a whole 1.0 MB/s after all... 1h remaining... I'm just wondering about what is on that recovery partition. The system SW backup shall take 4 GiB, but the entire partition is over 20 GiB large. Are there other relevant or useful parts stored in it? Can I look into it somehow?

Btw, Easy Software Manager stopped working. It won't finish loading. Last time, a Windows restart helped, but today it's definitely out of service. I remember it offered me downloading that Youcam software, which is not available on the Samsung website. But I think it's always better to have a local copy of everything required. There's plenty of space left for such things on my NAS.