N120 and Win7 Issues

Found a few issues after installing Win7 on my N120 Netbook:

1. The function keys no longer work. I cannot, for example, turn up the brightness using these keys. Do I need Samsung specific software for that to work?

2. Battery is running down way quicker. I'm getting four hours instead of seven. Again, do I need Samsung specific software for that?

I have installed the latest Intel drivers from the Samsung site, most of the other drivers are older than what Win7 installed except these (and bluetooth).

 

Rummage through the Samsung N120 software. The windows 7 versions of the Battery Life Extender and Easy Display Manager may fix your problems.

John

 

Got the function keys to work, but for whatever reason, I can't get Battery Manager to install. It starts up then vanishes. No go. When I try again, it asks me if I want to uninstall Battery Manager, I hit "No" but the popup screen won't go away, my only choice is "Yes". I do that, try reinstalling and no go.

 

Hey Robert, i installed my win 7 copy earlier today and i can't get the function keys to work. I found your post through Google search. Please share.

 

Perhaps Battery Manager is running OK but is lurking in the background.

John

 

Perhaps Battery Manager is running but hiding in the background. Does Task Manager show it as a running process?

John

 

Nope. Just checked around and found others have the same issue.

 

Think it was Easy Display Manager.

 

I have my copy of Win 7 installed and I had zero issues with Easy Display Manager. It appears that when it installs that it vanishes, for whatever reason, but it actually does install. The on-screen graphics come up and if I got the start menu and look under Samsung it shows up there too.

Thus far Windows 7 is pretty darn sweet on my N120. I am very happy with it!

 

The issue is Easily Battery Manager, Display Manager works fine.

 

Not for me it works just fine! It is just shows up as Samsung Optimised in the Power Manager settings. Battery Life is a little off compared to XP though!

 

I recently read (just can't recall the site I saw it at) that the Win 7 Starter version that several netbooks now come with has limited battery and power management capabilities. This causes, according to that article, a shorter battery life. The Win 7 Home Premium edition, however, should not have those difficulties.

 

Tell that to my N120 with Win7 Home Premium.

 

I can say that my battery life is very close to that of Win 7. I am very pleased. I can also report that on my Lenovo T400, I actually get a little bit more battery life.

I think it all depends on the drivers that are installed to provide battery management. I know Lenovo has been working diligently to provide good drivers. I am not sure that Samsung has, but the latest drivers specific for Win 7 does okay!

 

So, OTACORB, which OS do you have on your n120? And, how much battery life are you getting in it?

 

Windows 7 and I am averaging about 6 hours. Which is just a tad bit less than I got with Windows XP. This is running customized setting that I've changed to keep the processor a bit better managed and of course display is about half in terms of brightness.

When you are just surfing the web or typing up word processing documents, you really don't need your processor running a full speed, so this is where I think I am making up the difference by changing the default settings in battery manager.

 

Thanks very much!!!
This is very useful, even though I still haven't pulled the trigger on the nc120...

 

Win7 on this still sucks. Will I run into any problems if I remove Win7 from this and put it on another machine? Its a Home Premium Upgrade not OEM.

 

If you've activated it, then you'll likely get notification that it already activated if you try to put in on another machine. Usually you can call and they will activate it if you explain the situation.

I am thrilled with Win 7 on my Netbook, can't imagine what is so terrible about it for you.

 

Its slow, slow, slow and the battery wears down in half the time (not an exaggeration either). Just removed Win7 RC from my notebook as well, and its a lot zippier with Vista. Maybe its something else, but I don't know what.

 

Did you disable Windows 7's bells and whistles? These create a significant background overhead. My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects. I use Adjust for Best Performance + Smooth edges of screen fonts.

John

 

Just tried it, yep, much faster. But now, how's it any different than XP when you set it up like that?

 

We are lead to believe that the underlying core of Windows 7 includes significant improvements.

But now you have seen that Windows 7 can run smoothly without the eye candy, you can cautiously try re-enabling features which you think may be useful.

John

 

I've removed Win7 and reinstalled the XP the system came with. Just hoping I'm not going to run into a hassle moving the Win7 over to another system.

 

You may have to call MS activations in order to get it activated on another machine.

Win 7 still running fine on mine, no way I'd go back to XP! Different strokes for different folks!